BR  121 

.N48  1920 

1 

Newton, 

Joseph  Fort, 

1876- 

1950. 

The  religious  basis 

Kr^-H-^v   t.Tx-v-v-l/^  ^-^A^-,^ 

of 

a 

The  Religious  Basis  of  a 
Better  World  Order 


By 
Joseph  Fort  Newton 


An  Ambassador  City  Temple  Ser- 
mons.     1 2mo,  cloth      .     .     . 

A  man  invited  to  fill  the  pulpit  that  has  known 
the  ministries  of  such  world-famed  preachers  as 
Binney,  Parker,  and  Campbell  cannot  fail  to  have 
a  message  for  laymen  and  minister  alike.  This 
volume  contains  the  sermons  preached  in  Lon- 
don City  Temple,  and  are  marked  by  vigor- 
ous thinking  and  choice  expression. 

WTiat  Have  the  Saints  to  Teach 
Us  ?  A  message  from  the  Church  of  the 
Past  to  the  Church  of  To-Day.  i2mo, 
cloth I 

"  Of  that  profounder  life  of  faith  and  prayer 
and  vision  which  issues  in  deeds  of  daring  ex- 
cellence, the  Pilgrims  of  the  Mystic  Way  are  the 
leaders  and  guides ;  and  there  is  much  in  our 
time  which  invites  their  leadership." 

The  Eternal  Christ.  Studies  in  the  Life 
of  Vision  and  Service.   l2mo,61oth, 

«'  This  book  is  inspirational.  Reverent  in  tone, 
well  balanced  in  its  thought  and  polished  in 
style,  a  heartening  word  to  those  who  are  be- 
wildered by  the  babel  of  voices  called  forth  by 
the  materialism  of  the  present'age." 

— Record  of  Christian  Work. 


The  Religious  Basis  of  a 
Better  World  Order 

An  Application  of  Christian 
Principles  to  World  Affairs 


By 
JOSEPH  FORT  NEWTON,  LiTT.  D.,  D.  D. 

The  Church  of  the  Divine  Paternity ^  New  York, 
Late  of  City  TempUf  London 


New  York  Chicago 

Fleming   H.  Revell  Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1920,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


Printed  in  th$  United  States  of  America 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  17  North  Wabash  Ave. 
London*  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh :      75     Princes     Street 


To 

HAROLD  MARSHALL 

a  dear  fellow-worker^  whose  intrepid 

Faith  and  brotherly  Love  are  springs 

of  inward  stistaiitiftg^  I  inscribe  this 

7Jolume 


Foreword 

THE  sermons  in  this  volume  are  selected, 
for  the  most  part,  from  the  last  year  of 
the  City  Temple  ministry,  and  they  will 
no  doubt  be  found  to  reflect  not  only  their  English 
religious  environment,  but  also  the  moods  and 
problems  of  the  period  of  reaction  and  irritation 
immediately  following  the  war.  No  one  will  ever 
forget  that  time,  with  its  fatigue,  its  seeming 
moral  indifference,  and  its  undertone  of  wistful 
yearning  for  spiritual  reality;  and  it  was  a  great 
privilege  to  stand  in  the  pulpit  of  the  Temple,  at 
the  cross-roads  of  the  centuries,  speaking  of  those 
truths  which  will  abide  when  all  the  noises  of  the 
day  have  followed  the  feet  that  made  them  into 
silence. 

The  City  Temple  ministry,  begun  under  the  most 
ghastly  conditions  of  the  great  war — when  a 
preacher,  announcing  his  text,  was  not  sure  of 
living  to  pronounce  the  benediction — was  never 
meant  to  be  permanent;  but  only  a  mission  of 
Christian  fellowship  and  good-will  between  our 
English-speaking  peoples.  To  that  ministry,  not 
only  in  the  Temple,  but  all  over  the  British  Isles, 

7 


8  FOEEWOED 

I  gave  strength  without  stint — more,  in  truth,  than 
I  had  to  give — and  I  cannot  say  farewell  to  it  with- 
out expressing  my  gratitude  for  the  cordial  recep- 
tion everywhere  accorded  me  in  England,  Scot- 
land, and  Wales,  for  the  kindness  and  comradeship 
of  my  brethren  in  the  ministry,  both  Anglican  and 
Free,  and,  by  no  means  least,  for  the  noble  loyalty 
of  the  people  of  the  City  Temple. 

Looking  out  over  the  world  to-day,  so  torn,  so 
troubled,  so  gray  with  grief,  everywhere  the 
shadow  of  tragedy  and  the  whisper  of  an  unutter- 
able sorrow  for  the  gay  and  gallant  dead,  the  echo 
of  whose  laughter  leaves  a  hurt  in  our  hearts,  one 
recalls  that  prayer  for  Peace  by  an  ancient  Greek 
poet,  which  might  have  been  written  this  morn- 
ing; a  prayer  which  only  the  spirit  of  One  who 
was  greater  than  the  Greeks  can  ever  answer: 

Prom  the  murmur  and  subtlety  of  suspicion 
with  which  we  vex  one  another,  give  us  rest. 
Make  a  nezv  beginning,  and  mingle  again  the 
kindred  of  the  nations  in  the  alchemy  of  Love, 
and  with  some  finer  essence  of  forbearance 
and  forgiveness  temper  our  mind, 

J.  F.  N. 
New  York. 


Contents 


I.  The  World  Field  . 

II.  The  Theology  of  Civilization 

III.  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven 

IV.  The  Religion  of  America 

V.  The  Christ  of  To-Day  . 

VI.  The  Judgment  OF  the  Church 

VII.  The  Word  OF  God  . 

VIII.  The  House  of  the  Seer  . 

IX.  Nehemiah  the  Layman    . 

X.  The  Religious  Life 

XI.  Companions  of  the  Heart 

XII.  "  Nearer,  My  God,  to  Thee" 

XIII.  Those  Gone  Before 


II 

26 

37 
50 
64 
11 
9^ 
103 

iM 

127 
138 

M7 
172 


THE  WORLD  FIELD* 
" The  field  is  the  world"— Matt.  13 :  38. 

TO-DAY  we  read  the  words  of  Jesus  with 
new  eyes,  wondering  not  only  at  their 
depth  and  beauty,  but  at  their  sweep  and 
grasp  of  thought;  and  as  we  begin  to  understand 
the  message,  we  the  better  know  the  Messenger. 
Indeed,  we  needs  must  wonder  that  out  of  an  en- 
vironment of  narrow  nationalism  and  religious  ex- 
clusiveness  there  should  have  come  a  Gospel  of 
world-wide  significance  and  perpetual  importance. 
In  manner  and  habit  Jesus  was  a  son  of  His  age 
and  land,  but  His  mind  moved  outward  toward 
the  far  horizons,  and  He  thought  and  dreamed  in 
terms  of  all  humanity.  His  parables,  so  rich  in 
local  colour,  have  in  them  suggestions  of  the  vast 
eras  and  great  movements  of  history,  like  little 
ships  following  the  trade  winds  of  the  world. 
Living  in  a  tiny,  turbulent  province,  He  was  not 

^This  sermon,  preached  at  the  suggestion  of  a  distinguished 
British  statesman,  has  been  printed  in  part  and  in  many 
forms  on  both  sides  of  the  sea :  it  is  here  included  by  request, 
as  a  plea  for  a  Christian  enterprise  equal  to  the  task  of 
world-rebuilding. 

II 


12  THE  WORLD  FIELD 

provincial  in  His  faith,  least  of  all  in  His  vision 
of  the  love  and  power  and  purpose  of  God. 

Truly  He  was  led  up  into  an  exceeding  high 
mountain  and  shown  all  the  kingdoms  of  the 
world;  but  instead  of  bowing  down  to  worship 
Satan,  He  dreamed  a  diviner  dream  whereby  those 
kingdoms  should  become  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
Many  great  dreams  have  haunted  the  human 
mind — the  ideal  Republic  of  Plato,  the  Augustinian 
City  of  God,  written  when  the  Eternal  City  was 
reeling  to  its  downfall,  and  modern  Utopias  not  a 
few—but  all  of  them  are  dwarfed  by  the  mighty 
dream  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  as  it  shone  in 
the  Mind  of  Jesus — 

"  They  are  but  broken  lights  of  Thee ; 
And  Thou,  O  Lord,  art  more  than  they." 

In  nothing  did  Jesus  more  clearly  reveal  His 
divinity  than  in  His  vision  of  the  unity  and  com- 
munal redemption  of  humanity  here  upon  the 
earth  as  immediate,  urgent,  and  inevitable.  For 
that  is  what  He  means  by  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven — nothing  else  or  less — because  it  was  given 
Him  to  see  the  human  adventure  "under  the 
forms  of  eternity,"  that  is,  He  escaped  the  illusion 
of  time  and  saw  the  long,  tragic  ages  telescoped 
and  brought  together  into  one  luminous  vision,  in 
which  the  meaning  and  purpose  of  the  whole  was 


THE  WOELD  FIELD  13 

revealed.  Here,  surely,  is  the  noblest  conception 
that  has  come  within  sight  of  our  groping  human 
mind,  and  so  far  from  being  visionary  it  is  the 
supreme  necessity  of  our  day,  if  we  are  to  in- 
terpret, even  dimly,  the  "  increasing  purpose  "  of 
God  in  this  troubled  time. 

When  we  study  the  words  of  Jesus — fresh  as 
the  dew  and  bright  with  colour — we  discover,  first, 
that  next  to  His  faith  in  God  and  man  was  His 
faith  in  the  practical  efficacy  of  spiritual  influences 
in  human  affairs.  Like  a  wise  physician.  He  put 
His  hand  on  the  root  of  all  our  ills  when  He  said 
that  to  know  God,  to  love  God,  to  seek  first  the 
kingdom  of  God  is  the  fundamental  thing,  and  that 
all  else  will  be  added ;  and  hence  His  chief  mission 
was  to  reveal  God  to  man  and  to  bring  man  into 
harmony  with  God.  Second,  it  is  not  an  accident 
that  Jesus  makes  the  Child — the  prophet  of  hu- 
manity, in  whose  hand  the  future  lies — the  symbol 
of  His  Gospel,  and  the  child-heart  the  secret  of  His 
religion.  Here  the  everlasting  enterprise  of  educa- 
tion— by  which  we  must  mean  spiritual  nurture,  no 
less  than  physical  health  and  intellectual  culture — 
finds  sanction  and  inspiration;  as  much  by  the 
method  of  the  Teacher  as  by  His  faith.  Third,  it 
is  plain  that  Jesus  regarded  disease,  with  its  entail 
of  misery  and  mutilation,  as  an  intruder  in  the 
vv'orld,  and  if  we  have  lost  the  secret  of  His  min- 


U  THE  WOELD  FIELD 

istry  of  healing,  no  doubt  it  will  be  regained  when 
we  rediscover  His  "  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom  "  in 
its  fullness  and  power, — as  we  must  do  if  we  would 
take  the  forward  step  into  a  higher  order  of  life 
whither  He  seeks  to  lead  us.  Against  these  three 
foes — materialism,  ignorance,  and  disease — the 
Captain  of  our  Salvation  arrayed  His  forces,  find- 
ing in  His  faith  in  God  the  power,  the  resource,  the 
heroism  to  overcome  the  world.  Even  as  thus 
imperfectly  outlined,  the  profound  simplicity  of 
His  vast  design  is  only  equalled  by  the  faith — 
nay,  more,  the  experience — ^which  made  it  a  realized 
fact  in  His  own  life,  and  an  impending  reality  for 
mankind. 

Hitherto  only  a  few  have  ever  seen,  even  in  dim 
dream,  what  Jesus  actually  came  to  do,  and  what 
His  Gospel  really  means,  and  fewer  still  have  be- 
lieved it  to  be  anything  more  than  an  iridescent 
ideal.  To-day  it  is  different:  so  much  has  hap- 
pened, so  many  securities  have  been  shattered,  so 
many  vaulting  optimisms  have  been  proved  false, 
and  our  eyes  have  been  washed  by  a  flood  of  tears, 
the  while  we  walked  through  the  Gethsemane  of 
world-war  up  to  the  very  Mount  of  Calvary. 
Everywhere  men  are  beginning  to  realize  that 
Jesus  was  not  merely  dreaming  a  dream ;  as  when 
Bernard  Shaw  tells  us  that  he  is  no  more  a  Chris- 
tian than  Pilate  was,  but  that  he  is  ready  to  admit, 


THE  WORLD  FIELD  15 

after  contemplating  the  world  of  human  nature 
for  nearly  sixty  years,  that  he  can  see  no  way  out 
of  the  world's  misery  but  "  the  way  which  could 
have  been  found  by  Christ's  will  if  he  had  under- 
taken the  work  of  a  modern  practical  statesman." 
In  other  words,  men  are  making  the  discovery — 
belated,  but  none  the  less  significant — that  what 
Jesus  was  talking  about  is  a  reality  and  a  neces- 
sity; that  He  saw  straight,  and  that  only  spiritual 
forces  can  hold  the  world  together  and  redeem  us 
from  the  red  hell  in  which  we  lived  for  five  years. 
Chesterton  was  right:  "  Christianity  has  not  failed, 
it  has  been  found  difficult  and  laid  aside  " ;  but  we 
now  see  that  the  Way  of  Jesus  is  less  difficult  than 
the  way  we  have  been  going.  When,  at  last,  the 
Church  attains  to  the  vision  of  her  Master,  all  pro- 
vincial narrowness,  all  sectarian  antipathy,  all  that 
mars  fellowship  and  limits  brotherhood  will  be 
melted  in  a  spiritual  passion;  and  she  will  realize 
her  power  as  a  keeper  of  holy  mysteries,  as  an 
inspirer  of  personal  righteousness  and  social  Jus- 
tice— as  the  servant  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

Against  this  background  let  us  now  consider  and 
interpret  the  meaning  of  our  English-speaking 
civilization,  and  its  significance  for  God  and  hu- 
manity, alike  by  virtue  of  our  racial  ideal  and  the 
form  which  Christianity  has  taken  among  us. 
Great  events — which  are  the  footsteps  of  God — 


16  THE  WORLD  FIELD 

drew  Britain  and  America  together  in  a  common 
task  and  responsibility,  and  the  result  is  a  new 
friendship,  hastened  by  menace  and  cemented  by 
sacrifice,  which  the  future  historian  will  reckon 
among  the  prophetic  facts  of  our  time.  Certainly 
it  is  the  most  hopeful  asset  left  to  our  humanity 
as  it  turns  from  the  terrible  business  of  destruction 
to  the  rebuilding  of  a  devastated  world  threatened 
by  an  all-dissolving  anarchy.  Our  history,  our 
geographical  positions,  our  temperaments,  and  still 
more  our  ideals,  make  us  trustees  of  the  liberties 
of  mankind,  and  what  we  do  will  decide  whether 
the  civilization  built  up  since  the  fall  of  Rome  is 
to  break  up  and  go  to  pieces,  or,  unified,  move  for- 
ward to  a  new  day.  We  stand  at  a  grave  and 
critical  hour — how  critical,  none  of  us  alive  will 
ever  realize — and  if  the  English-speaking  races 
should  quarrel  and  become  disunited,  or  fail  to  pool 
their  thought  and  hope,  and  forget  to  keep  the  gen- 
eral welfare  of  mankind  in  view,  the  future  will 
be  such  as  to  fill  the  stoutest  heart  with  dismay. 
The  words  of  John  Galsworthy  are  none  too 
strong: 

"  For  the  advance  of  civilization  the  solidarity 
of  the  English-speaking  races  is  vital.  Without  it 
there  is  no  bottom  on  which  to  build.  .  .  . 
They  have  got  to  stand  together,  not  in  aggressive 
and  jealous  policies,  but  in  defense  and  champion- 


THE  WOELD  FIELD  17 

ship  of  the  self-helpful,  self-governing,  '  live  and 
let  live  '  philosophy  of  life.  ...  He  that  ever 
gives  a  thought  to  the  life  of  man  at  large,  to  his 
miseries  and  disappointments,  to  the  waste  and 
cruelty  of  existence,  will  remember  that  if  Amer- 
ican or  Briton  fail  himself,  or  fail  the  other,  there 
can  but  be  for  both,  and  for  all  other  peoples,  a 
hideous  slip,  a  swift  and  fearful  fall  into  an  abyss, 
whence  all  shall  be  to  begin  over  again.  We  shall 
not  fail — neither  ourselves,  nor  each  other.  Our 
comradeship  will  endure."  * 

Indeed,  yes ;  and  no  petty  matters,  no  divergence 
of  material  interest  must  mar  a  fellowship  upon 
which  the  very  existence  of  civilization  depends, 
else  the  future  will  be  haunted  by  insecurity,  as  the 
past  has  been.  Not  only  so,  but  our  common 
genius  for  private  liberty  and  public  order  at 
home,  of  frankness,  friendliness  and  fair  dealing 
abroad,  our  ideal  of  the  Commonwealth,  of  the 
service  of  man  to  his  neighbour,  near  or  far;  the 
ideal  which  unites  individual  initiative  with  social 
responsibility — whereof  this  blessed  island  has 
been  a  home  and  a  fortress  for  a  thousand  years, 
and  whence  it  migrated  to  the  New  World — re- 
quire of  us  a  leadership  of  service  in  organizing 
and  stabilizing  the  world.  From  this  obligation 
there  is  no  honourable  escape,  and  if  we  are  not 

'  Yale  Review, 


18  THE  WORLD  FIELD 

ready  for  a  great  feat  of  brotherly  world  service, 
putting  the  common  good  above  our  own  interest, 
we  shall  prove  ourselves  unworthy  of  the  leader- 
ship entrusted  to  us.  For  it  is  not  an  accident,  but 
by  the  providence  of  God,  that  we  are  made  the 
guardians  of  the  main  line  of  human  development; 
and  our  confidence  must  be  less  in  formal  bonds 
than  in  our  spiritual  affinities  and  our  common 
loyalty  to  the  democratic  ideal,  which  is  at  once  the 
inheritance  and  the  hope  of  our  race. 

After  all,  the  reality  underlying  our  deep,  mys- 
terious kinship  "  breaks  through  language  and  es- 
capes**; it  is  more  real  than  words,  a  thing  of 
vision,  of  sentiment,  of  dream,  living,  growing, 
prophetic.  It  is  not  geography,  though  one  of  the 
longest  frontiers  in  the  world  is  between  the  Em- 
pire and  the  Republic — four  thousand  miles  with- 
out a  fort,  without  a  gun,  without  a  battleship;  a 
line  as  invisible  as  it  is  unguarded.  Nor  is  the  tie 
between  us  race  or  language,  much  as  these  may 
have  to  do  in  making  friendship  not  only  real,  but 
fruitful — and  especially  our  great,  rich,  many- 
toned  language  in  which  Bunyan  dreamed,  and 
Carlyle  thundered,  and  Lincoln  uttered  his  simple 
and  haunting  eloquence.  No,  it  is  a  common  and 
high  ideal  of  life,  a  common  conception  of  civiliza- 
tion, of  the  home,  of  the  Church  and  the  State ;  we 
think  in  the  same  world  of  ideas  and  ideals,  in  a 


THE  WOELD  FIELD  19 

solidarity  of  memory,  of  aspiration,  of  shared  spir- 
itual life,  which  finds  expression  in  literature,  art, 
and  an  advancing  social  order  in  which  liberty  and 
law  are  wedded.  With  the  utmost  respect  for 
other  races,  we  may  yet  truly  say  that  our  racial 
ideal,  touched  and  glorified  by  the  religion  of  Jesus, 
has  produced  a  type  of  mind  and  character — from 
King  Alfred  to  Gladstone,  from  Washington  to 
Lincoln — which,  in  its  contribution  to  the  moral 
integrity  of  history,  has  none  to  surpass  it. 

Equally  unique  and  noble  is  the  form  which 
Christianity  has  taken  among  us,  interwoven,  as  it 
has  been,  with  our  common  history,  and  touching 
to  finer  issues  the  creative  forces  of  our  civiliza- 
tion. One  has  only  to  think  of  the  history  of 
England — or  of  the  American  Republic — with  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  left  out,  remembering  that  the 
Bible  was  the  loom  on  which  our  very  language 
was  woven,  to  realize  the  place  of  Christianity  in 
the  story  of  our  race.  With  deep  respect  for  the 
Christianity  of  other  races — especially  for  Latin 
Christianity,  many  of  whose  saints  are  among  our 
"  shining  ones," — we  may  truly  say  that  in  insight 
and  outlook,  no  less  than  in  type  of  character  and 
quality  of  service,  something  peculiar  and  precious 
has  been  wrought  among  us.  Here  again  words 
fail  us,  refusing  to  describe  what  is  more  easily 
felt  than  defined;  but  no  one  will  deny  that  our 


20  THE  WOELD  FIELD 

history  reveals  a  Christianity  in  which  faith  is 
joined  with  freedom,  and  noble  thinking  with  prac- 
tical mysticism.  For  example,  in  the  Letters  of 
Bismarck  we  read:  "  If  I  were  not  a  Christian  I 
would  be  a  republican  " ;  but  we  are  wont  to  find 
the  roots  of  our  democracy,  and  the  hope  of  its 
final  consecration,  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  about 
the  love  of  God  and  the  dignity  and  worth  of  man. 
Hence  our  religious  responsibility  for  leadership  in 
democracy,  first,  by  removing  its  weaknesses  and 
shams  at  home,  and  then  by  the  Christian  tutelage 
of  races  not  yet  ready  for  it. 

True  statesmanship  consists  in  discerning  the 
way  God  is  going  and  in  getting  things  out  of  His 
path.  For  that  reason,  the  question  for  Christian 
patriots  in  our  two  nations  to  ask  themselves,  is. 
What  does  God  mean  by  America,  what  is  His 
purpose  with  respect  to  Britain,  and  how  can  we 
help  to  fulfil  that  purpose?  Unless  we  see  our 
national  aspiration  and  enterprise  as  it  stands  in 
the  service  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  it  will  not 
yield  its  true  meaning  and  prophecy,  because  there 
is  no  adequate  vision  of  the  Common  Good  by 
which  to  interpret  it.  By  the  same  sign,  our  Chris- 
tianity must  pass  from  individual  experience  into 
social  vision  and  public  justice,  and  be  felt  in  the 
halls  of  Parliament  and  Congress  as  well  as  in  the 
churches,  if  we  are  ever  to  be  Christian  nations. 


THE  WOELD  FIELD  21 

A  nation  of  Christians  is  one  thing;  a  Giristian 
nation  is  another.  Christianity,  as  we  now  see  it, 
means  more  than  a  dogma,  more  than  a  ritual, 
more  than  a  mystical  ecstasy;  it  is  a  law,  a  prin- 
ciple, a  spirit,  which  must  be  active  in  all  the  condi- 
tions of  life,  personal,  economic,  racial.  The  truth 
is  that,  while  professing  Christianity,  we  have  been 
thinking  in  terms  of  materialism,  and  half -shares 
in  Christianity  will  not  work.  If,  then,  we  would 
realize  our  racial  destiny,  much  less  fulfil  our  re- 
ligious obligation  to  mankind,  it  must  be  by  leading 
the  way  in  making  trial  of  the  Law  of  the  Spirit  of 
Jesus,  not  only  as  a  private  faith  and  expectation, 
but  also  as  a  social  order  and  a  national  policy — a 
feat  asking  for  a  gallant  and  holy  chivalry  worthy 
of  the  new  order  of  the  ages. 

First  of  all,  there  lies  upon  us  the  obligation — 
aye,  the  sheer  necessity — of  organizing  the  good- 
will, the  moral  intelligence,  and  the  practical  wis- 
dom of  the  world  to  defeat  and  destroy  the  horrible 
gods  of  militarism.  When  we  listen  to  the  Voice 
of  the  Dead,  as  it  speaks  to  us  in  the  poems,  letters, 
diaries  and  memoirs  of  the  trenches — a  body  of 
sacred  writing  which  I  commend  to  any  one  whose 
faith  has  grown  dim — ^there  is  nothing  of  which  it 
speaks  more  clearly,  or  with  more  unanimous  em- 
phasis and  eloquence,  than  in  its  protest  against  the 
insanity  and   unrelieved  brutality  of  war.    All 


22  THE  WOELD  FIELD 

through  those  letters  we  hear  those  two  words, 
"  Carry  On,"  which  sum  up  innumerable  brief, 
blotted  biographies,  and  they  speak  to  us  of  com- 
radeship, of  solidarity,  of  cooperation,  of  a  se- 
quence of  aim  and  ideal  which  make  the  last  words 
of  the  dying  the  first  command  to  the  living. 
Their  words,  and  still  more  their  acts,  unite  in  a 
message  so  authoritative,  so  compelling,  that  we 
dare  not  disregard  it.  We  face  a  future  knowing 
of  it  only  this,  that  it  is  not  ours  but  theirs,  and 
our  obligation  to  build  it  out  of  their  ideals,  and  in 
their  spirit  of  sacrifice,  is  inexorable,  inescapable; 
else  we  shall  fall  under  the  curse  of  that  flashing 
line  of  William  Morris,  who,  as  though  foreseeing 
this  day,  wrote:  ''For  men  betrayed  are  mighty, 
and  great  are  the  wrongfully  dead."  Society,  said 
Burke,  is  a  contract  between  the  living,  the  dead, 
and  those  yet  unborn,  and  we  dare  not  break,  or 
fail  to  fulfil,  that  primeval  compact  in  which  the 
law  of  each  nation  is  but  a  clause,  linking  the  vis- 
ible with  the  invisible  world  in  the  unity  of  the 
Will  of  God. 

Not  alone  to  make  an  end  of  war  must  we  learn 
to  have  joint  aspirations,  to  act  in  concert,  and  to 
develop  to  its  consummation  the  fraternal  instinct ; 
but  also  in  our  inter-racial  relations  now  so  acute. 
So  long  as  distances  were  great  and  races  lived  far 
apart  this  friction  was  not  so  keenly  felt,  but  to-da^ 


THE  WOELD  FIELD  23 

the  world  has  shrunk  to  the  size  of  a  neighbour- 
hood and  many  peoples  are  mingled.  Lord  Morley 
thinks  the  problem  of  the  black  man  in  America 
"  insoluble  " — that  is  his  word — and  so  it  is,  if 
Christianity  be  left  out  of  it.  As  a  welter  of  ran- 
cours and  suspicions,  as  a  wrangle  of  irritations,  it 
is  hopeless.  Not  less  so  the  medley  of  races  in  the 
Republic,  and  only  a  practical  Christian  brotherli- 
ness  can  redeem  us  from  an  interminable  feud  end- 
ing in  chaos.  No  doubt  it  is  important  to  Ameri- 
canize those  who  have  come  to  us  from  other  lands, 
but  it  is  more  important  still  to  Christianize  both 
ourselves  and  the  strangers  within  our  gates. 
Hardly  less  urgent  is  the  problem  of  inter-racial 
fellowship  in  the  British  Commonwealth,  under 
whose  protection  are  some  of  the  oldest  and  noblest 
races  of  humanity,  and  others  just  emerging  from 
primitive  Ufe.  If  those  races  appeal  to  the  mag- 
nets of  Mammon  as  a  field  for  investment, — and, 
alas,  for  exploitation — how  much  more  should  they 
touch  the  hearts  of  those  who  follow  the  banner  of 
Jesus,  the  Son  of  Man!  What  human  resources 
are  there  waiting  to  be  trained  for  the  highest  serv- 
ice, if  only  we  are  equal  to  our  opportunity  of 
Christian  tutelage  and  wise  enough  to  let  each  race 
be  free  to  unfold  its  best  life,  adding  its  gift  to  the 
Human  Commonwealth! 

Nor  must  we  forget  that  the  grand  missionary 


24  THE  WOELD  FIELD 

enterprise — the  noblest  and  most  prophetic  under- 
taking now  afoot  on  earth — will  rest  largely,  if  not 
entirely,  in  the  hands  and  upon  the  hearts  of  our 
two  nations  in  the  days  that  lie  ahead  of  us.  Here 
is  an  opportunity,  and  with  it  a  responsibility,  ask- 
ing us  to  make  the  religion  of  Jesus  a  reality  at 
home  and  to  send  it  into  all  the  dark  places  of  the 
world ;  a  challenge  alike  to  our  human  instincts  and 
our  Christian  chivalry.  What  an  appeal  to  the 
youth  of  Britain  and  America,  offering  a  crusade 
no  less  poetic,  and  far  more  thrilling,  than  the 
causes  which  enlisted  the  valour  of  knights  in  the 
olden  time!  The  thought  behind  this  enterprise 
has  enlarged  with  the  processes  of  the  centuries, 
but  its  motive  of  Divine  love  and  human  pity  re- 
mains the  same  since  a  frail  little  man — following 
a  voice  heard  in  a  vision — set  sail  from  Asia  Minor 
and  began  his  heroic  evangel  in  Europe.  We  still 
see,  as  Paul  did,  a  host  of  many  tribes  and  races — 
our  brothers — groping  in  the  dim  twilight  of  fear, 
idolatry,  and  superstition,  and  every  instinct  of 
fellowship,  every  prompting  of  Christian  love, 
compel  us  to  teach  them  the  noblest  faith  we  know. 
Our  methods,  too,  have  altered,  at  the  touch  of  a 
finer  insight,  a  profounder  sympathy,  and  an  un- 
folding faith — altered  from  mere  propaganda  to 
interpretation,  which  seeks  not  to  destroy  but  to 
fulfil — and  in  these  labours  in  the  world-field  we 


THE  WOELD  FIELD  26 

are  learning  anew  the  unity  of  our  faith,  a  wider 
fellowship,  and  a  clearer  vision  of  the  social  mean- 
ing and  practical  efficacy  of  the  religion  of  Christ 
both  to  ourselves  and  to  our  humanity  in  its  slow, 
upward  climb  toward  the  star  of  happy  light. 

In  tasks  of  such  pith  and  moment,  in  enterprises 
so  far-reaching  and  benign,  Britain  and  America 
are  called  to  lead  our  humanity,  and  thus  to  realize 
their  highest  unity  and  destiny  in  the  service  of 
that  Kingdom  to  whose  sovereignty  all  nations 
must  yield  at  last.  United  in  faith,  in  freedom,  in 
obligation — as  they  were  united  in  the  trenches,  on 
the  gray  solitudes  of  the  sea,  in  the  halls  of  a  thou- 
sand hospitals,  and  in  the  consecration  of  an  inex- 
pressible sacrifice — they  must  pray  together,  plan 
together,  dream  together,  sowing  the  living  Word 
of  God  in  the  great  world-field — trusting  the  Eter- 
nal Creative  Good-Will  to  bring  first  the  flower, 
and  then  the  ripened  fruit,  in  the  far-off  harvest  of 

the  ages. 

The  wind  of  God  is  blowing 

Through  the  open  minds  of  men, 

And  His  sharp  share  is  plowing 

In  the  troubled  hearts  of  men : 

And  soon  there'll  be  a  sowing. 

And  a  springing  and  a  growing, 

And  then  a  new  grace  flowing 

Through  all  the  lives  of  men. 

For  so  shall  come  God's  Harvest  Home, 

In  the  ripened  souls  of  men. 


II 

THE  THEOLOGY   OF   CIVILIZATION 

"And  I  saw  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth/' 
— Rev.  21 :  i. 

NEVER  was  there  more  need  for  a  New 
Earth  than  in  the  age  of  Domitian,  in 
which  the  prisoner  of  Patmos  dreamed 
his  dream.  It  was  a  hard  and  desperate  age,  when 
the  world  seemed  swept  clean  of  every  footprint 
of  Divinity.  Might  was  in  the  saddle,  and  did 
what  it  liked,  trampling  out  the  ideals  and  aspira- 
tions of  the  spirit.  There  seemed  no  place  in  all 
the  world  safe  for  the  gentler  influences  upon 
which  the  hope  of  humanity  depends.  The  temple 
at  Jerusalem  was  a  shapeless  wreck.  One  after 
another  the  Apostles  of  Christ  had  been  put  to 
death  and  their  little  churches  scattered.  Dark- 
ness seemed  to  settle  upon  the  earth  like  a  pall 
without  hope  of  a  dawn,  except  for  one  bright  star 
which  shone  in  the  soul  of  a  lonely  seer  on  his 
island  prison. 

Despite  the  shadows,  the  Christian  Apostle,  an 
exile  working  in  the  quarries,  saw  the  final  inevi- 
table victory  of  Christ.     There  was  vouchsafed  to 

26 


THE  THEOLOGY  OP  CIVILIZATION      27 

him  a  new  certainty  of  God,  a  new  assurance  that 
His  power  is  over  all  things;  and  his  faith  shone 
like  a  pulse  of  fire  in  the  night.  He  beheld  a  new 
heaven  of  righteousness,  and  a  new  earth  where 
men  live  together  by  the  power  of  love.  He  saw 
the  Lamb  overcoming  the  Brute.  He  foresaw  a 
new  national  life,  symbolized  in  a  far-shining  City 
of  God  which  no  longer  needed  a  temple  in  it, 
because  it  was  all  a  Temple.  As  one  also  of  our 
own  poets  has  said, 

Christianity  completed  is  civilization. 

The  Book  of  Revelation  is  the  Theology  of  Civili- 
zation, set  forth  in  the  symbols  and  imagery  of 
apocalyptic  vision;  a  prophetic  theology  written 
with  a  pen  dipped  in  earthquake  and  eclipse,  in  the 
colours  of  heaven  and  the  shadows  of  the  bottom- 
less pit. 

Indeed,  the  whole  Bible  is  a  theology  of  civiliza- 
tion, in  which  we  see  the  slow  unfolding  of  the  love 
and  purpose  of  God  in  the  courses  of  history.  It 
moves  between  two  mighty  seers — Moses,  whose 
vision  brooded  over  "  the  old  dark  backward  and 
abysm  of  time,"  whence  order  and  beauty  emerged, 
and  the  author  of  the  Apocalypse,  whose  insight 
forecast  the  final  issue  of  man  and  his  destiny. 
What  a  story  it  recites!  It  begins  at  the  begin- 
ning, with  the  wandering  of  shepherds  and  way- 


28     THE  THEOLOGY  OF  CIVILIZATION 

farers  in  the  morning  of  time.  We  see  the  rise  of 
the  home  and  the  family,  of  the  tribe  and  the  na- 
tion; a  race  passing  through  slavery  into  the  vesti- 
bule of  civilized  life;  the  gradual  building  of  a 
rich  and  complex  social  order;  its  prosperity,  its 
splendour,  its  testing  time,  and  its  final  fall,  "  be- 
cause it  knew  not  the  time  of  its  visitation."  No 
object  lesson  could  be  plainer,  and  if  God  speaks 
to  us  to-day,  as  He  spoke  to  the  people  which  were 
of  old,  through  facts,  forces,  events,  ideas,  we  can- 
not do  better  than  turn  again  to  the  Book  of  Vision 
for  light  and  leading. 

After  a  long  night  of  strife,  bitterness,  suffering, 
and  horror,  we  see  at  last  the  red  dawn  of  a  new 
day.  With  the  morning  come  new  hopes,  new 
plans,  new  expectations,  new  determinations,  and 
whatever  the  new  day  may  be,  there  is  everywhere 
the  feeling  that 

Nothing  can  be  as  it  has  been  before; 
Better,  so  call  it,  only  not  the  same. 

Whether  the  world  will  be  better,  or  only  different, 
will  depend  upon  the  mood,  the  spirit,  the  vision 
with  which  we  set  out  to  mould  and  control  it. 
Evolution  is  not  automatic.  Society  may  easily 
suffer  a  devolution  after  the  loss  in  blood  and 
genius  and  treasure  that  it  has  experienced,  giving 
way  to  passions  of  national  vanity,  commercial  ac- 


THE  THEOLOGY  OF  CIVILIZATION      29 

quisitiveness,  and  pessimistic  cynicism.  One  thing, 
and  only  one,  can  save  us  from  such  a  dire  disaster, 
and  that  is  a  high,  dauntless,  undefeatable  faith 
like  that  which  thrills  us  in  the  words  of  the  pris- 
oner of  Patmos.  Literally,  we  shall  be  saved,  if 
saved  at  all,  by  faith  not  only  in  the  possibility,  but 
in  the  practicability  of  organizing  the  good-will  of 
the  world  and  bringing  it  to  the  service  of  the  com- 
mon good.  Even  the  prevention  of  a  similar  trag- 
edy by  purely  repressive  means  will  not  be  enough. 
There  must  be  a  new  spirit,  a  heroic  faith,  by  which 
the  Will  to  Rivalry  can  be  overcome  by  the  Will  to 
Fellowship,  if  we  are  to  achieve  the  cooperation  of 
peoples  in  a  passion  for  a  new  and  better  world. 
Otherwise,  after  a  lull,  during  which  the  nations 
will  repair  their  fortunes  and  gather  power,  there 
will  again  be  war.    Hear  these  words: 

"  The  task  of  the  future  demands  the  eradication 
of  the  sceptic  attitude  toward  an  unprecedented  social 
and  moral  order.  Nothing  but  the  very  essence  of 
the  religious  spirit  can  achieve  it.  We  must  have  an 
expectancy  similar  to  that  of  the  early  Christians. 
We  must  learn  to  live  with  a  sense  of  something 
immense  impending,  of  a  profound  change  to  take 
place.  It  is  only  in  an  atmosphere  of  expectancy  that 
we  can  work  the  alchemy  of  faith.  It  is  impossible 
for  any  one  to  overestimate  the  importance  of  this 
psychic  background.  It  is  not  enough  that  a  few 
high-minded  statesmen  outline  a  plan  of  social  and 


30      THE  THEOLOGY  OF  CIVILIZATION 

political  reorganization.  This  is  necessary.  But  all 
these  plans  and  visions  must  ultimately  depend  for 
their  realization  upon  a  spiritual  pressure  coming  out 
of  the  heart  of  the  people,  a  universal  energized  re- 
ligion, a  will  to  creation."  ^ 

Therefore  the  order  of  words  in  our  text  is  not 
accidental ;  it  is  fundamental.  Humanity  has  been 
trying  to  live  without  God,  without  faith,  and  it 
cannot  be  done.  Human  life  is  from  above  down- 
ward ;  our  help  is  from  God.  Materialism,  in  the 
outworking  of  ideas  and  events,  undermines  civili- 
zation, and  ends  either  in  autocracy  or  anarchy, 
playing  havoc  with  the  human  soul.  There  were 
many  secondary  causes  of  the  Great  War,  but  its 
primary  cause  was  a  materialized  age  and  a  faith- 
less life.  In  nothing  was  the  insight  of  the  seer  of 
Patmos  clearer  than  when  he  saw  that  we  must 
have  a  new  heaven  if  we  want  a  new  earth.  There 
must  be  a  new  vision  of  God,  a  new  way  of  think- 
ing of  God,  nay,  a  new  experience  of  God  in  our 
hearts,  and  as  a  reality  in  the  processes  of  life,  if 
we  expect  a  new  world.  Many  things  our  age 
needs,  but  surely  its  supreme  need  Is  for  a  pro- 
founder,  more  satisfying  vision  of  God,  at  once 
spiritually  Intelligible  and  philosophically  compe- 
tent, as  a  justification,  an  explanation,  an  inspira- 
tion,  and   a  sanction  of  its  noblest  ideals   and 

' "  Faith  and  the  Coming  Order,"  by  C.  R.  Skinner. 


THE  THEOLOGY  OF  CIVILIZATION      31 

undertakings.  There  must  be  a  transformed  spir- 
itual outlook  if  we  are  to  see  the  New  Jerusalem 
descending — that  is  to  say,  a  new  heavenly  life  in 
which  God  dwells  with  men  as  a  realized  presence. 
There  is  no  need  to  say  that  our  experience  of 
God,  our  thought  of  what  He  is,  determines,  by  its 
own  logic,  what  we  think  about  ourselves  and  our 
fellow-men,  about  life,  and  duty,  and  destiny. 
Thus  the  Bible  is  a  revelation  not  only  of  what  God 
is  in  His  character,  but  of  how  the  growing,  enlarg- 
ing thought  of  God  modifies  the  spirit  and  char- 
acter of  man.  If  we  study  the  theology  of  its 
civilization,  we  find  that  God  was  made  known  to 
man  in  personal  experience,  in  social  progress,  and 
in  the  unfoldings  of  the  cosmic  order.  It  was  a 
progressive  revelation,  as  all  revelation  must  be, 
wrought  out  in  the  toil,  trial,  and  tragedy  of  human 
life,  and  later  written  down.  First,  God  was 
thought  of  as  tribal,  local,  exclusive,  jealous.  But 
as  life  deepened  and  man  became  more  refined  in 
spirit  and  larger  in  thought,  his  vision  of  God  grew 
richer,  deeper,  broader.  By  the  time  we  come  to 
the  great  prophets,  God  is  seen  to  be  not  only  moral 
and  spiritual,  but  universal  in  His  love  and  care. 
No  longer  Israel  alone,  but  Egypt  and  Assyria  are 
dear  to  Him.  At  last,  in  the  vision  of  Jesus  He  is 
the  God  and  Father  of  humanity,  not  in  contrast 
with  man,  as  in  the  Old  Testament,  but  akin  to  us. 


32      THE  THEOLOGY  OF  CIVILIZATION 

involved  in  our  tragedy,  working  through  us,  seek- 
ing to  reconcile  all  nations,  and  all  souls,  to  Him- 
self. 

Here,  then,  is  the  answer  to  the  question,  What 
is  the  pro  founder  vision  of  God  that  we  need  to- 
day, and  how  can  we  arrive  at  it?  Manifestly,  in 
the  same  way  that  the  men  which  were  of  old  at- 
tained to  more  fruitful  and  satisfying  visions  of 
God,  whereof  they  have  made  record.  Our  faith 
is  being  revealed — that  is,  wroui^ht  out — as  of  old, 
in  the  experience  of  the  age,  its  toil,  its  sorrow,  its 
aspiration,  its  bloody  strife,  and  its  bitter  need,  and 
finds  expression  in  its  noblest  lives,  its  loftiest 
thought,  and  its  divinest  ideals  and  endeavours. 

Our  thought-world  is  different  from  that  of 
our  fathers — we  do  not  live  in  their  "  block-uni- 
verse," as  James  called  it — but  the  God  we  love  and 
seek  is  the  same  God  to  whom  they  prayed;  the 
same,  but  differently  interpreted.  As  our  noblest 
minds  think  of  God  to-day,  He  is  moral  and  spir- 
itual indeed,  just  and  loving,  but  also  immanent, 
social,  dynamic,  living  with  us  and  within  us,  as 
well  as  above  and  beyond  us,  seeking  to  build  "  a 
Beloved  Community."  He  is  all  our  fathers 
thought  Him,  and  much  more,  much  nearer,  not 
less  august  but  more  our  Comrade,  slowly  working 
out  through  us  a  benign  purpose  in  history — His 
Holy  Spirit  a  tide  of  moral  influence  running  in 


THE  THEOLOGY  OF  CIVILIZATION      33 

the  hearts  of  men.  He  is  the  Eternal  Creative 
Good-Will,  who  needs  us  for  His  service  as  we 
need  Him  for  the  fulfilment  of  our  lives,  and  in 
the  most  literal  sense  we  are  His  fellow-workers. 

Of  course,  the  implications  of  such  an  insight, 
both  as  to  old  ideas  and  new  ideals,  are  as  startling 
as  they  are  inescapable.  No  wonder  a  deep  silence 
has  fallen  upon  many  dogmas  about  which  men 
were  very  talkative  only  a  few  years  ago — because 
they  are  as  dead  as  Pan.  They  are  not  refuted, 
but  simply  forgotten.  They  do  not  signify.  Some 
of  them,  it  is  true,  were  survivals  of  times  half- 
barbaric,  and  as  such  can  have  no  place  in  a  the- 
ology of  civilization.  What  is  more  to  the  point 
is  that  we  are  arriving  at  an  insight  equal  to  the 
issue  before  us,  which  is  the  issue  between  an  aris- 
tocratic, deterministic,  nationalistic  outlook  and 
the  ethics  of  democracy,  of  moral  freedom,  and  of 
a  fellowship  of  humanity.'  "  Wanted:  a  faith  for 
a  task ! "  cried  a  forward-looking  saint  recently 
fallen  asleep ;  and  it  is  a  task  the  greatest  ever  un- 
dertaken by  man — no  other  than  the  overthrow  of 
autocracy  in  the  State,  in  the  Church,  in  industry, 
and  the  reorganization  of  society  on  a  basis  of 
justice  and  good-will.  Such  a  faith  our  age  de- 
mands, and  it  is  being  born  of  the  agony  and  deep 

* "  The  Experience  of  God  in  Modern  Life,"  by  E.  W. 
Lyman. 


34      THE  THEOLOGY  OF  CIVILIZATION 

need  of  our  day,  evoking  all  the  old  reverences  and 
inspiring  all  the  new  ideals;  a  "religion  of  the 
people,"  as  Canon  Barnett  called  it,  and  which  he 
defined  as  "  that  faith  in  the  Highest  which  is  the 
impulse  of  human  progress/* 

Always,  and  inevitably,  a  deeper  experience  of 
God  involves  and  implies  a  nobler  conception  of 
humanity,  and  such  a  faith  is  needed  to-day  when 
we  are  tempted  to  the  cynicism  of  disillusion. 
Never  was  it  more  fatally  easy  than  now  to  say 
that  human  nature  is  human  nature,  and  that  we 
can  expect  nothing  better  of  it  than  greed,  revenge, 
and  war — following  the  old  vicious  circle  from 
Jena  to  Austerlitz,  from  Sedan  to  the  Marne. 
Alas!  the  tragedy  of  this  point  of  view  is  that  it 
is  true  if  we  think  it  is  true,  and  that  so  long  as 
man  believes  himself  to  be  basically  brutal  he  will 
continue  to  exhibit  his  brutality.  But  if  man  is  a 
being  in  whom  God  dwells,  as  Christianity  affirms ; 
if  his  soul  is  a  shrine  in  which  the  Eternal  Good- 
Will  can  make  a  home,  then  our  highest  social 
visions  have  hope  of  fulfilment.  For  we  have  not 
only  a  Divine  Ally  working  with  us  and  within  us, 
but  also  a  hidden  ally,  potential  and  prophetic,  in 
every  man,  which  Lincoln  called  the  angel  of  our 
better  nature,  to  which  we  do  not  appeal  in  vain. 
The  war  has  shown  us  the  nether  side  of  humanity, 
but  not  less  so  its  divine  power  of  sacrifice  and 


THE  THEOLOGY  OF  CIVILIZATION      35 

endurance  in  behalf  of  the  ideal,  and  for  a  future 
it  does  not  see. 

Faith,  and  yet  again  faith,  is  what  our  age  de- 
mands; a  faith  adequate  to  the  undertakings  of 
these  stupendous  times.  Not  faith  alone,  but  a 
clarity  of  thought,  a  wisdom  of  patience,  and  a 
daring  of  adventure  to  attempt  great  human  enter- 
prises. Slowly  there  is  emerging  in  prophetic 
minds — more  vividly  outside  the  churches,  it  often 
seems,  than  inside — an  experience  of  God  equal  to 
our  needs;  a  vision  which  realizes  alike  the  unity 
of  humanity  and  the  infinite  value  of  every  human 
soul.  A  noble  man  of  state  *  has  told  us  frankly 
that  the  essential  thing  in  respect  of  a  league  of 
good-will  among  peoples  "  is  to  obtain  recognition 
of  the  fact  that  the  interests  of  humanity  as  a 
whole  really  exist,"  and  that  nations  are  part  of 
one  another,  even  though  it  is  right  that  each 
should  aspire  to  its  own  ideal.  Thus  the  Christian 
sense  of  sonship  and  solidarity,  so  effective  in 
breaking  down  "  every  middle  wall  of  partition  " 
between  nation  and  nation,  class  and  class,  is  a 
practical  necessity  if  we  are  to  abolish  war  and 
translate  into  fact  our  ideal  of  organized  good- 
will. 

Edith  Sichel  spoke  for  a  multitude  no  man  can 
number  when  she  said :  "  The  immanence  of  God 
'I^ord  Robert  Cecil. 


36      THE  THEOLOGY  OF  CIVILIZATION 

and  the  life  of  Christ  are  my  treasures."*  After 
all,  it  is  to  the  vision  of  Jesus  that  we  come  in  our 
quest  of  a  theology  of  civilization,  the  vision  of 
the  sons  of  God  working  together  with  their 
Father,  by  science,  by  social  art,  by  creative  love, 
by  moral  intelligence,  for  the  building  of  a  broth- 
erly world-order.  Nor  must  we  forget  that  there 
is  in  man  what  some  one  has  called  a  Sixth  Sense, 
a  sense  of  the  future,  of  a  victory  yet  to  be  won 
over  ape  and  tiger.  They  err  who  make  the  past 
of  man  the  measure  of  what  he  is  to  be,  imagining 
that,  because  a  thing  has  been,  it  always  must  be. 
Man  as  yet  is  being  made,  and  "  prophet-eyes  may 
catch  a  glory  slowly  gaining  in  the  shade,  till  the 
peoples  all  are  one."  The  dreamers  die,  but  never 
dies  the  dream  that  some  day  love  will  everywhere 
prevail.  In  God  and  godlike  men  we  put  our  trust, 
God  over  all,  in  all,  and  through  all,  revealing  His 
will  in 

Souls  that  have  built  our  faith  in  man. 
And  lit  the  ages  as  they  ran. 
The  company  of  souls  supreme. 
The  conscripts  of  the  mighty  dream. 
Brave  souls  that  took  the  perilous  trail 
And  felt  the  vision  could  not  fail. 

'"Old  and  New."    Edited  by  A.  C.  Bradley. 


IIT 

THE  KINGDOM  OF  HEAVEN. 

"  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand." — Matt.  4 :  17. 

NO  one  can  read  the  Gospels  and  not  see 
that  Jesus  was  possessed  by  a  great  idea 
and  a  great  purpose,  and  the  two  were 
fused  into  a  glowing  vision  which  led  Him  to  the 
end.  That  idea,  that  vision,  He  called  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven,  and  by  this  alone.  He  said,  mankind 
can  be  saved.  The  key-note  was  struck  early  in 
His  ministry:  "The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at 
hand  " ;  and  this  ideal  remained  central  and  su- 
preme in  His  thought  and  teaching.  In  sermons, 
in  parables,  in  all  the  prodigal  splendour  of  His 
incomparable  speech,  He  was  always  trying  to  ex- 
plain what  He  meant  by  it,  trying  to  make  it  real 
and  vivid.  Sometimes  He  called  it  the  Kingdom 
of  God,  sometimes  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  but 
always,  next  to  His  faith  in  God,  it  was  the  sum 
of  His  teaching  and  the  key  to  His  Gospel. 

What,  then,  did  Jesus  mean  by  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven?     It  is  plain  that  Jesus  found  it  difficult 
to  explain  what  He  meant  by  it,  though  He  la- 
boured incessantly  to  do  so.     In  parable  after  par- 
'     37 


38  THE  KIl^GDOM  OF  HEAVEN 

able  He  spoke  of  it,  telling  us  that  it  is  here,  at 
hand,  inevitable,  yet  His  imagery  is  confused  by 
its  very  richness.  Often  it  seems  to  exist  inde- 
pendently of  mankind ;  and  yet  it  is  within  us.  It 
is  like  a  mustard  seed,  the  smallest  of  all  seeds,  but 
when  it  is  grown  it  is  the  greatest  of  all  herbs — 
like  the  magic  tent  in  the  Arabian  Nights,  folded 
in  a  walnut  shell,  but  when  unfolded  it  covered  the 
king,  then  the  courtyard,  and  finally  the  whole  city 
beneath  its  canopy.  It  is  like  a  treasure  hidden  in 
a  field,  not  something  seen  at  once,  but,  when  it  is 
found,  worth  all  that  a  man  has.  It  is  like  leaven, 
which  acts,  slowly  and  surely,  on  the  meal  with 
which  it  is  mixed,  until  the  whole  is  leavened. 
And  a  thing  that  can  be  compared  to  a  wheat  field, 
a  mustard  seed,  a  yeast-cake,  a  hidden  treasure,  a 
pearl,  and  a  fish-net,  must  have  a  complex  and 
many-sided  meaning. 

Manifestly,  Jesus  meant  something  very  won- 
derful by  this  majestic  phrase,  and  if  He  could 
have  put  it  more  plainly  He  would  have  done  so. 
Unfortunately,  He  nowhere  formally  defines  it. 
There  was  no  need  to  do  so,  because  He  spoke  to 
people  to  whom  it  was  familiar,  and  had  been  since 
the  time  of  the  prophet  Daniel.  They  knew,  in 
general,  what  He  meant  by  it,  however  the  current 
thought  may  have  been  lifted  and  transfigured  in 
His  vision.     If  we  turn  to  the  thought  of  the  time 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  HEAVEN  39 

we  find,  first,  that  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  was  to 
be  set  up  on  earth,  not  in  a  far-off  future  Hfe. 
Many  of  the  Hebrews  did  not  beHeve  in  Hfe  after 
death.  Further,  it  was  to  be  a  universal  kingdom 
on  earth,  all  nations  finally  coming  under  its  do- 
minion. Also,  it  was  to  be  a  kingdom  of  righteous- 
ness, and  the  pictures  of  it  become  loftier  and  more 
idealistic  the  further  we  go,  alike  in  the  prophets 
and  in  the  apocalyptists.  There  is  no  doubt  as  to 
what  was  meant  by  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  at  that 
time,  and,  therefore,  no  doubt  as  to  what  Jesus 
meant.  By  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  He  meant  a 
universal  kingdom  upon  this  earth,  in  which  the 
law  of  God  should  rule  and  mankind  walk  in  love 
and  in  obedience  to  it.  He  meant  not  only  the  sal- 
vation of  the  individual,  but  the  reign  upon  this 
earth  of  righteousness  and  love  and  blessedness 
for  all. 

Happily,  at  last,  the  splendour  of  the  vision  of 
Jesus,  to  which  He  gave  His  life,  is  beginning  to 
dawn  upon  the  minds  of  men.  As  never  before, 
we  can  now  take  deep-sea  soundings  in  the  mind 
of  Jesus  in  respect  to  the  Kingdom  of  God.  It  is 
not  only  a  vision,  it  is  a  history ;  the  history  of  the 
universe,  of  this  earth,  and  of  its  multitudinous 
life.  There  are,  as  Drummond  said,  "  the  inor- 
ganic, or  first,  kingdom;  the  organic,  or  second, 
kingdom;  and  the  Kingdom  of  God,  or  the  third 


40  THE  KINGDOM  OF  HEAYEl^ 

kingdom."  The  rule  of  God,  of  course,  is  supreme 
in  all  realms,  and  the  laws  of  the  lower  kingdoms — 
mineral,  animal,  and  the  rest — are  His  laws.  But 
He  has  higher  aims  than  the  making  of  stones,  and 
trees,  or  human  bodies,  and  this  higher  treasure 
Jesus  urges.  Man  is  physical,  but  not  merely 
physical.  When  man  attains  to  the  spiritual,  a 
new  history  begins.  Jesus  did  not  say,  Seek  only 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  but  seek  it  first.  There 
are  other  than  spiritual  needs,  but.  He  says,  if  we 
seek  first  things  first,  the  rest  will  be  added. 

Thus  it  is  a  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  not  a  kingdom 
in  heaven — the  term  describes  its  temper,  not  its 
locality.  It  is  spiritual,  not  geographical.  It  is 
world-wide,  and  age-lasting.  It  is  the  royal  rule 
of  God  in  the  souls  and  in  the  affairs  of  men.  It 
means  not  only  noble  persons,  but  a  Divine  Society, 
resting  upon  the  fact  that  the  universe  has  spiritual 
meanings,  and  is  moving  toward  spiritual  ends.  It 
means  the  realization  in  human  relations,  both  per- 
sonal and  communal,  of  the  supremacy  of  spiritual 
realities,  of  the  filial  life  toward  God,  and  the 
brotherly  life  toward  man,  in  which  the  promise 
of  the  future  lies.  Its  foundation  is  righteousness. 
Its  law  is  love.  Its  goal  is  nothing  else  or  less  than 
a  redeemed  humanity.  It  summed  up  the  whole 
purpose  and  passion  of  the  life  of  Jesus,  the  truths 
with  which  He  lit  up  the  minds  of  men,  the  power 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  HEAVEN  41 

which  He  poured  into  history,  and  His  visions  of 
the  future.  Before  all  else,  before  life  itself,  He 
sought  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  and  to  it  gave  His 
life  at  last,  walking  the  way  of  the  Cross. 

Truly  it  is  a  tremendous  Credo,  and  for  breadth 
and  beauty  and  grandeur  there  is  not  another  like 
it.  The  Family  Kingdom  of  Plato  was  noble,  but 
it  was  limited.  The  vision  of  Jesus  embraced  all 
races,  all  lands,  all  ages  in  its  vast  sweep.  Slowly 
and  swiftly,  by  a  law  of  Surprise  and  a  law  of 
Growth,  by  Intervention  and  by  Evolution,  He  saw 
the  Eternal  Will  working  toward  the  redemption 
of  humanity.  His  faith  in  God  was  so  creative,  so 
vivid,  that  it  made  all  that  the  prophets  had 
dreamed,  and  righteous  men  had  desired,  instant, 
emergent,  and  inevitable.  It  is  at  hand,  and  be- 
cause it  has  already  begun  His  moral  teaching  is 
intended  as  the  actual  application  of  the  laws  of 
the  Kingdom  to  life,  both  personal  and  social. 
His  insight  discerned  in  man,  in  all  men,  however 
far  fallen,  a  Divine  Life,  often  tiny  as  a  mustard 
seed,  which  can  and  will  grow  to  greatness  by  the 
power  and  grace  of  God.  For,  always.  His  vision 
of  the  Kingdom  was  linked  in  His  faith  with  a 
mighty  redeeming  force,  so  real  that  to  pass  from 
its  realization  in  Himself  to  its  fulfilment  in  hu- 
manity was  but  a  step. 

Here  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus — and  here  alone— 


42  THE  KINGDOM  OF  HEAVEN 

we  have  a  faith  and  a  vision  equal,  aUke  in  nobility 
and  comprehensiveness,  to  our  human  undertaking. 
What  we  need  in  our  day,  in  every  field  of  human 
aspiration  and  endeavour,  is  a  clear,  commanding 
conception  of  the  Common  Good;  the  insight  to 
discern  that  the  good  of  humanity  as  a  whole  actu- 
ally exists,  and  that  the  good  of  any  class,  or  sect, 
or  nation  can  only  be  realized  in  the  universal 
good.  Indeed,  if  we  are  to  have  an  ethic  of  fra- 
ternity we  must  learn  "  that  goodness  is  not  merely 
some  form  of  similar  activity  of  self  and  neigh- 
bour, but  is  really  an  attitude  of  each  to  the  other ; 
the  realization,  indeed,  of  spiritual  kinship  and 
unity,"  * — in  short,  that  goodness  is  community, 
and  that  it  takes  two  men  and  God  to  make  a 
brother.  In  one  of  his  poems  William  Morris 
speaks  of  the  problems  of  our  day  as  a  "  tangled 
wood,"  until  they  are  seen  in  the  light  of  life's 
meaning  as  a  whole,  and 

"  looking  up,  at  last  we  see 
The  glimmer  of  the  open  light, 
From  o'er  the  place  where  we  would  be : 
Then  grow  the  very  brambles  bright." 

Looking  up,  Jesus  saw  in  clear  vision  the  mean- 
ing of  life,  the  goal  of  its  uprising  passion  and 
desire,  the  purpose  of  the  human  encampment,  to 
be  the  realization  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  on 
' "  Self  and  Neighbour,"  by  E.  W.  Hirst. 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  HEAVEN  43 

earth;  and  thus  He  pointed  the  way  out  of  the 
"  tangled  wood  "  in  which  we  wander  confused. 
The  genius  of  His  gospel  was  His  faith  in  God 
the  Father,  and  His  extension  of  the  idea  of  the 
family  to  include  all  humanity,  its  law  brotherly 
love,  its  ideal  a  Beloved  Community  in  loyalty  to 
which  human  life,  both  personal  and  social,  finds 
fruition  and  fulfilment. 

This  at  least  is  plain:  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
was  not  a  mere  detail  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus — a 
mere  poetic  gesture — but  the  essence  and  glory  of 
His  religion ;  and  in  the  Golden  Rule  He  found  the 
principle  of  reciprocity  by  which  it  may  be  realized. 
How  strange  that  a  faith  so  central  in  the  mind  of 
Jesus,  a  vision  that  possessed  Him  so  utterly,  has 
so  long  been  forgotten  by  the  Church.  If  we  turn 
to  the  creeds  of  the  Church,  in  quest  of  essential 
Christian  faith,  we  find  almost  no  mention  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven — as  if  what  meant  everything 
to  Jesus  has  meant  nothing  to  the  Church.  In- 
deed, the  Church  has  actually  changed  the  meaning 
of  the  word  heaven,  making  it  to  mean,  not  an 
order  of  life  in  which  the  will  of  God  fulfils  itself, 
but  a  place  outside  this  earth  where  the  divine 
forces  rule  without  hindrance.  Hence  an  other- 
worldliness,  not  to  be  found  in  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
— hence,  also,  the  blasphemy  of  asceticism  with  its 
blight  upon  the  joy  of  life — and  this  in  spite  of  the 


44  THE  KINGDOM  OP  HEAVEN 

great  Prayer,  in  which  He  taught  us  to  pray: 
"  Thy  kingdom  come ;  thy  will  be  done  on  earth, 
as  it  is  done  in  heaven."  No  wonder  the  brief, 
grand  Prayer  has  become  remote  and  unreal,  if  not 
a  kind  of  incantation.  Never  have  words  been  so 
misread ;  never  has  any  teaching  been  so  perverted. 
Jesus  did  not  mean  that  God  has  given  up  the  earth 
to  misery  and  misrule,  and  that  the  only  redemp- 
tion of  man  is  in  a  distant  heaven  beyond  the  grave. 
Alas,  the  Church,  as  has  been  truly  said,  in  its 
choice  between  the  redemption  of  mankind  and  a 
private  salvation,  gave  up  the  greater  hope  for  the 
lesser.  Hence  its  creeds,  its  ritual,  all  framed,  it 
would  seem,  to  exclude,  not  to  include,  as  if  it  must 
always  be  trying  to  limit  the  limitless  love  of  God, 
or  build  a  hedge-fence  about  His  grace.  But  the 
shock  of  world-tragedy  has  brought  us  to  see  more 
clearly,  if  not  to  think  more  deeply,  and  we  now 
know  that  the  hope  of  the  Church  lies  in  recovering 
the  Faith  of  Jesus  and  entering  into  His  largeness 
of  vision.  Hitherto,  as  a  fact,  the  Church  has  not 
taught  the  religion  of  Jesus,  but  a  religion  about 
Jesus  made  up,  in  large  part,  of  dogmas  of  which 
He  said  nothing,  and  rites  of  which  He  knew  noth- 
ing. If  it  would  recapture  the  power  and  joy  of 
the  early  Church  it  must  return  to  "  the  Gospel  of 
the  Kingdom,"  as  Jesus  preached  it,  with  its  wide 
outlook  and  its  practical  program.     Until  Chris- 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  HEAVEN  45 

tian  principles  begin  to  be  applied  to  social,  eco- 
nomic, and  national  affairs,  it  will  be  increasingly 
difficult  to  convert  men  to  an  "  other-world " 
Christianity.  As  we  may  read  in  a  striking  essay 
in  which  a  thoughtful  man,  writing  hot  out  of  his 
heart,  has  put  the  matter  with  a  directness  that  may 
not  be  evaded: 

"  In  two  thousand  years  we  have  advanced  at  least 
to  this  point,  that,  if  we  have  religion  at  all,  we  cannot 
believe  in  private  salvation.  We  see  that  a  man  who 
could  be  content  with  his  own  private  salvation,  or 
with  the  very  notion  of  a  private  salvation,  would 
prove  by  his  contentment  that  he  was  not  saved. 
Salvation  is  seeing  that  the  universe  is  good,  and  be- 
ing a  part  of  that  goodness;  and  the  universe  is  not 
good,  it  is  nonsense,  if  some  men  are  saved  and  others 
not.  .  .  .  Religion  now  means  the  hope  of  uni- 
versal salvation,  and  that  was  what  Christ  offered  to 
mankind."  ^ 

Of  course,  by  "universal  salvation"   is  here 

meant  the  vision  of  the  communal  redemption  of 

humanity,  as  it  shone  In  the  mind  of  Jesus;  and  if 

any  proof  of  His  divinity  were  needed,  surely  that 

sublime  conception  would   crown  Him   as   "  the 

Lord  of  all  Good  Life."     By  the  same  token,  the 

Church  exists  to  promote  the  realization  of  the 

Kingdom  of  Heaven  In  the  hearts  and  affairs  of 

men,  and  for  nothing  else.     It  does  not  exist  for 

*"What  is  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven?"  by  A.  Clutton 
Brock. 


46  THE  KINGDOM  OF  HEAVEN 

itself,  but  to  get  the  work  of  the  Kingdom  done,  to 
bring  the  rule  of  God  into  all  the  fellowships  of 
human  life.  That  is  its  business.  The  trouble  is 
that  the  Church  thinks  too  much  about  itself, 
whereas,  "  whosoever  will  save  his  life  shall  lose 
it:  and  whosoever  will  lose  his  life  for  my  sake 
shall  find  it."  In  view  of  the  discussion  about 
rites,  robes,  orders,  ordinations,  and  the  like — 
about  which  Jesus  said  not  one  word — it  is  in  order 
to  say  to  the  Church:  "  Seek  ye  first  the  Kingdom 
of  God  and  His  righteousness,  and  all  these  things 
will  be  added  unto  you."  Such  things  are  valuable 
only  when  they  are  "  added  "  to  something  else. 
Jesus  was  not  interested  in  churches ;  He  was  inter- 
ested in  men.  He  taught  us  to  pray  in  words,  and 
still  more  in  our  works,  that  His  Kingdom  of  fra- 
ternal righteousness  should  triumph  on  earth,  and 
in  face  of  that  task  the  little  dogmas  that  make  for 
debate  are  nothing.  By  all  methods,  by  her  evan- 
gelism, her  spirituality,  by  the  purity  and  brother- 
liness  of  her  people — in  her  own  life,  in  business, 
in  the  State,  in  industry — the  Church  must  seek  one 
thing  and  only  one — to  establish  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven. 

Not  only  the  Church,  but  all  agencies  and  insti- 
tutions making  for  the  highest  life  have  here  their 
sanction  and  consecration.  Indeed,  the  long  climb 
of  man  out  of  the  "  old  dark  backward  and  abysm 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  HEAVEN  47 

of  time  "  toward  the  light — slow,  tragic,  heroic, 
higher  and  higher  out  of  savagery  into  civilization 
— begins  to  have  meaning  when  we  see  its  goal 
adumbrated  in  this  august  vision  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven.  The  organization  of  life  in  homes,  in 
industry,  in  education,  in  science,  in  art,  in  charac- 
ter, is  touched  with  new  and  enduring  worth  when 
we  see  it  as  it  stands  in  the  service  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven.  In  the  same  way,  the  fellowship  of 
man  in  spiritual  faith,  in  moral  endeavour,  in  im- 
mortal hope,  to  which  we  give  the  name  Religion, 
finds  its  fulfilment  when  it  is  devoted  to  the  high 
end  of  making  the  will  of  God  prevail.  Our  own 
lives,  tiny  as  mustard  seeds  in  the  universe — so 
brief  at  their  longest,  so  broken  at  their  best — are 
redeemed  from  insignificance  and  endowed  with 
epic  worth  and  meaning  when  they  are  related  to 
this  large,  eternal  purpose.  God  is  the  meaning  of 
life,  and  in  His  service  our  fleeting  days  that  pass 
like  hooded  figures  reveal  their  eternal  quality.  He 
only  is  wise  who  prays : 

The  kingdom  that  I  seek 
Is  Thine,  so  let  the  way 
That  leads  to  it  be  Thine. 

Thus,  "  Thy  kingdom  come  "  is  not  a  prayer  for 
the  rapture  of  heaven,  but  for  the  triumph  of  the 
spirit,  the  faith,  the  vision  of  Jesus  on  earth.     The 


48  THE  KINGDOM  OF  HEAVEN 

social  ills  that  afflict  us  exist  because  we  have  not 
yet  obeyed — if,  indeed,  we  have  even  learned — the 
laws  of  the  Kingdom.  As  God  writes  His  laws  in 
nature,  leaving  man  to  find  and  apply  them,  so 
there  is  a  Divine  law  of  social  justice  awaiting  dis- 
covery and  application.  The  challenge  of  this 
quest  is  the  pressure  upon  us  of  the  Spirit  of  God, 
and  in  making  trial  of  just  ways  God  will  reveal 
Himself  in  a  new  and  more  satisfying  vision,  as 
He  was  made  known  to  the  seers  of  the  Bible  in 
their  long  struggle  as  to  how  the  Eternal  shall  be 
served,  whether  by  dogma  and  ritual  or  by  justice 
and  righteousness.  Indeed,  the  theme  of  the  Old 
Testament  is  largely  emancipation  from  economic 
slavery  by  the  power  of  religious  faith,  as  the 
theme  of  the  New  Testament  is  largely  the  recon- 
ciliation of  racial  and  political  differences  through 
supreme  devotion  to  a  common  Lord.  During 
recent  decades  the  wit  of  man,  toiling  in  the  phys- 
ical realm,  has  opened  to  us  a  new  experience  of  the 
reality  and  purpose  of  God  in  the  lucid  and  wise 
order  of  the  world.  If,  in  the  next  few  decades,  a 
like  inventiveness  is  devoted  to  enterprises  of  moral 
discovery  and  social  engineering,  no  one  can  fore- 
tell what  may  thereby  be  gained  in  the  way  of  a 
new  revelation  of  God  in  the  fellowship  and  service 
of  man. 

Ever  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at  hand ;  always 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  HEAVEN  49 

it  is  hovering  over  us,  ready  to  reveal  itself  in  the 
lives  and  labours  of  man  when  we  are  ready  to  re- 
ceive it.  What  God  seeks  to  do  is  not  to  drive  but 
to  lead — not  to  invade  but  to  invite — and  this  re- 
quires men  who  have  the  insight  to  discern  and  the 
heroism  to  follow  the  will  of  the  Eternal.  At  last 
the  vision  of  Jesus  will  come  true,  as  witness  the 
profound  harmony  between  His  life  and  the  in- 
creasing purpose  of  the  universe,  whereby,  while 
empires  crash  and  fall.  He  abides  and  advances  in 
power  and  dominion  over  men.  Slowly,  and  in 
the  midst  of  strife  and  confusion,  the  City  of 
Equity  rises,  a  city  built  by  the  hand  of  man  moved 
by  the  Spirit  of  God.  God  is  the  Lord  of  the  to- 
morrows, as  of  the  yesterdays,  and  by  His  grace 
we  shall  yet  build  that  Kingdom  of  Truth,  Beauty, 
and  Justice,  which  our  prophets  have  seen  afar  off 
in  their  visions,  for  which  Jesus  laboured,  and  for 
which  He  bids  us  labour  and  pray. 

Keep  heart,  O  Comrade !     God  may  be  delayed 

By  evil,  but  He  suffers  no  defeat ; 

Even  as  a  chance  rock  in  an  upland  brook 

May  change  a  river's  course ;  and  yet  no  rock — 

No,  nor  the  baffling  mountains  of  the  world — 

Can  hold  it  from  its  destiny,  the  sea. 

God  is  not  foiled  ;  the  drift  of  the  world  Will 

Is  stronger  than  all  wrong.     Earth  and  her  years, 

Down  joy's  bright  way,  or  sorrow's  long  road. 

Are  moving  toward  the  purpose  of  the  Skies. 


IV 

THE  RELIGION  OF  AMERICA' 

"  He  hath  not  dealt  so  with  any  nation." 
— Psalm  147:20. 

RELIGION  is  a  universal  and  elemental 
power  in  human  life,  and  to  limit  its  scope 
by  restrictive  adjectives  would  seem,  at 
first  sight,  to  be  self -contradictory.  For  this  rea- 
son, to  speak  of  the  religion  of  America  borders 
on  inconsistency.  Since  human  life  pulsates  to  the 
same  great  needs,  the  same  great  faiths,  the  same 
great  hopes,  why  speak  of  the  religion  of  one  na- 
tion as  if  it  were  unique?  Surely  the  religious 
sentiment  is  the  supreme  revelation  of  the  essential 
unity  of  humanity,  and  the  ultimate  basis  of  human 
fraternity.  Exactly,  but  the  very  fact  that  religion 
is  the  creative  impulse  of  humanity  promises  vari- 
ety of  form,  of  accent,  and  of  expression.     It  has 

^Preached  at  the  celebration  of  Independence  Day, 
City  Temple,  Thursday  morning,  July  4,  1918,  attended 
by  the  Lord  Mayor  of  London  and  representatives  of 
many  civic  societies  and  religious  communions. 

50 


THE  EELIGION  OF  AMEEICA  51 

the  unity  of  a  flower  garden,  in  which  there  is  one 
rich  soil  and  one  soft  air,  but  every  variety  of 
colour  and  fragrance. 

Humanity  is  one,  religion  is  one;  but  in  the 
economy  of  progress  a  distinctive  mission  is  as- 
signed to  each  great  race,  for  the  fulfilment  of 
which  it  is  held  to  account.  Naturally,  in  the 
working  out  of  that  destiny  the  common  impulse  of 
race  is  given  form,  colour,  and  characteristic  ex- 
pression by  the  national,  social,  political,  and  intel- 
lectual environment  in  which  it  develops.  Thus 
the  religion  of  Greece,  with  its  myriad  gods,  was 
different  from  the  religion  of  Egypt,  albeit  spring- 
ing from  the  same  impulse.  The  Tree  of  Life  has 
many  branches,  and  its  leaves  are  for  the  healing 
of  the  nations,  its  underlying  unity  taking  many 
shapes  of  beauty  and  of  power,  and  this  richness 
of  expression  adds  infinitely  to  its  picturesqueness. 
Religions  are  many,  but  Religion  Is  one,  and  those 
who  know  this  truth  look  with  a  new  w^onder  upon 
the  various  robes  of  faith  and  hope  which  man  has 
worn  In  the  midst  of  the  years. 

No  one  can  read  the  story  of  man  aright  unless 
he  sees  that  our  human  life  has  its  inspiration  in 
the  primary  fact  of  religion.  The  State,  not  less 
than  the  Church,  science  equally  with  theology, 
have  their  roots  In  this  fundamental  reality.  At 
the  centre  of  human  life  is  the  altar  of  faith  and 


52  THE  EELIGION  OF  AMEEICA 

prayer,  and  from  it  the  arts  and  sciences  spread 
out,  fan-wise,  along  all  the  avenues  of  culture. 
The  temples  which  crowned  the  hills  of  Athens 
were  dreams  come  true  in  stone,  but  they  were  pri- 
marily tributes  to  the  gods,  the  artistic  genius  find- 
ing its  inspiration  and  motif  in  religious  faith. 
Unless  we  lay  firm  hold  of  the  truth  of  the  essen- 
tial religiousness  of  human  life,  we  have  no  clue  to 
its  meaning  and  evolution.  So,  and  only  so,  may 
any  one  ever  hope  to  interpret  the  eager,  aspiring, 
prophetic  life  of  America,  whose  ruling  ideas  and 
consecrating  ideals  have  their  authority  and  appeal 
by  virtue  of  an  underlying  conception  of  life  and 
of  the  world. 

For  it  is  becoming  increasingly  manifest  that 
our  Republic — a  melting-pot  of  nations  and  races 
— has  a  spirit  of  its  own,  unique,  particular,  and 
significant,  and  a  mission  to  fulfil.  Just  as  to  the 
Greeks  we  owe  art  and  philosophy,  to  the  Hebrews 
the  profoundest  religion,  to  the  Romans  law  and 
organization,  and  to  Anglo-Saxons  laws  that  were 
self-created  from  the  sense  of  justice  in  the  people, 
just  so  America  has  a  distinct  contribution  to  make 
to  the  wealth  of  human  ideals.  America  is  not  an 
accident.  It  is  not  a  fortuitous  agglomeration  of 
exiles  and  emigrants.  Nor  is  it  a  mere  experiment 
to  test  an  abstract  ideal  of  state.  No,  it  is  the 
natural  development  of  a  distinct  life — an  inward 


THE  EELIGION  OF  AMEBIOA  63 

life  of  visions,  passions,  and  hopes  embodying  it- 
self in  outward  laws,  customs,  institutions,  ways  of 
thinking  and  ways  of  doing  things — a  mighty  spir- 
itual fact  which  may  well  detain  us  to  inquire  into 
its  meaning.  Because  America  is  carving  a  new 
image  in  the  pantheon  of  history  it  behooves  us  to 
ask  whether  or  not  from  its  teeming,  multitudinous 
life  there  is  not  emerging  an  interpretation  of  re- 
ligion distinctively  and  characteristically  American. 
In  a  passage  of  singular  elevation,  both  of  language 
and  of  thought,  Hegel  explains  why  he  did  not  con- 
sider America  in  his  "  Philosophy  of  History," 
written  in  1823: 

"America  is  the  land  of  the  future,  where,  in  the 
ages  that  lie  before  us,  the  burden  of  the  world's  his- 
tory shall  reveal  itself.  It  is  the  land  of  desire  for  all 
those  who  are  weary  of  the  historical  lumber-room  of 
old  Europe.  It  is  for  America  to  abandon  the  ground 
on  which  hitherto  the  history  of  the  world  has  de- 
veloped itself.  What  has  taken  place  in  the  New 
World  up  to  the  present  time  is  only  an  echo  of  the 
Old  World — the  expression  of  a  foreign  life,  and  as 
a  land  of  the  future,  it  has  no  Interest  for  us  here, 
for,  as  regards  history,  our  concern  must  be  with  that 
which  has  been  and  that  which  is." 

Written  by  a  great  thinker  who  studied  the  his- 
tory of  the  world  as  an  unfolding  of  the  Divine  life 
of  man,  and  who  searched  every  page  for  the  foot- 
prints of  God,  those  words  are  memorable.     They 


64  THE  EELIGIOK  OP  AMERICA 

are  a  recognition  of  the  unique  and  important  mis- 
sion of  our  Republic  and  its  inescapable  responsi- 
bility in  the  arena  of  universal  history.  Much  has 
happened  since  Hegel  wrote  in  1823,  and  the 
drama  of  our  national  destiny,  as  so  far  unfolded 
since  that  time,  is  a  fulfilment  of  his  prophecy, 
showing  that  we  have  abandoned  the  ground  on 
which  history  has  hitherto  wrought  and  developed 
not  only  a  life  of  our  own,  growing  out  of  a  rich 
soil,  but  that  we  have  undertaken  a  new  adventure. 
To-day  America  is  not  a  New  England,  not  a  new 
Europe,  but  a  new  world,  and  as  such  it  must  be 
reckoned  with  by  all  who  would  estimate  the  pos- 
sessions of  humanity.  As  one  also  of  our  own 
poets  has  said,  setting  our  history  to  music:  * 

This  is  the  New  World's  gospel :  Be  ye  men ! 
Try  well  the  legends  of  the  children's  time; 
Ye  are  a  chosen  people,  God  has  led 
Your  steps  across  the  desert  of  the  deep. 
As  now  across  the  desert  of  the  shore  ; 
Mountains  are  cleft  before  you  as  the  sea 
Before  the  wandering  tribes  of  Israel's  sons; 
Still  onward  rolls  the  thunderous  caravan. 
Its  coming  painted  on  the  western  sky, 
A  cloud  by  day,  by  night  a  pillar  of  flame. 
Your  prophets  are  a  hundred  to  one 
Of  them  of  old  who  cried,  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord  "; 
They  told  of  cities  that  should  fall  in  heaps, 

*0.  W.  Holmes. 


THE  EELIGION  OF  AMEEICA  55 

But  yours  of  mightier  cities  that  shall  rise 
Where  yet  the  lowly  fishers  spread  their  nets ; 
The  tree  of  knowledge  in  your  garden  grows. 
Not  single,  but  at  every  humble  door. 

Long  ago  Carlyle  said  that  the  religion  of  a  man 
Is  the  chief  fact  concerning  him,  and  the  same  is 
true  of  a  nation.  By  religion  he  meant,  as  he  went 
on  to  say,  not  the  creed  which  a  man  professes;  not 
that  necessarily,  often  not  that  at  all,  since  we  see 
men  of  all  deg'rees  of  worth  and  worthlessness  pro- 
fessing all  kinds  of  creeds.  No,  by  religion  he 
meant  that  which  a  man  practically  believes,  lays  to 
heart,  acts  upon,  and  therefore  knows  about  this 
mysterious  universe  and  his  duty  and  destiny 
therein;  that  is  the  chief  fact  about  him  and  cre- 
atively determines  all  the  rest — that  is  his  religion. 
By  the  same  token,  the  religion  of  a  nation  is  not 
its  formal  faith,  its  accepted  theology,  but  some- 
thing deeper,  more  real,  and  more  wonderful;  its 
ideals,  its  dreams,  its  temper,  its  ruling  principles, 
its  character.  Socrates  said  that  the  real  religion 
of  Greece  was  not  to  be  found  in  Its  temples,  and 
Emerson  made  a  like  remark  about  the  religion  of 
England."  Our  Yankee  Plato  found  the  actual  re- 
ligion of  this  Island  something  finer,  more  in- 
wrought, at  once  more  noble  and  fruitful  than  the 
creeds  of  all  its  churches. 

'"English  Traits." 


66  THE  RELIGION  OF  AMERICA 

Much  of  the  theology  taught  in  America,  even 
to-day,  was  transplanted  to  our  shores  from  lands 
and  times  alien  to  our  own,  and,  if  taken  literally, 
it  would  be  incompatible  with  our  fundamental 
ideal.  It  was  the  product  of  minds  whose  only 
ideal  of  the  State  was  that  of  an  absolute  mon- 
archy ;  it  is  a  shadow  of  vanished  empires,  a  remi- 
niscence of  ages  when  the  serfdom  of  the  people 
and  the  despotism  of  constituted  authorities  were 
established  conditions.  Its  idea  of  God,  of  man, 
of  salvation,  are  such  as  would  naturally  occur  to 
the  subjects  of  an  autocracy,  and  this  may  be  one 
reason  why  it  hardly  touches  the  actual  life  of  men 
in  our  Republic.  Fortunately,  our  fathers  kept 
their  theology  and  their  politics  apart,  seemingly 
unaware  of  the  conflict  between  them.  No  doubt 
here  we  find  the  reason  why  some  of  our  most 
typical  men,  like  Lincoln  and  John  Hay,  while  pro- 
foundly religious,  held  aloof  from  the  churches. 
If  we  would  know  the  real  theology  of  America, 
to  say  nothing  of  its  religion,  we  must  go  further 
than  to  the  creeds  of  its  churches,  and  find  it  in  the 
life  of  the  people,  their  temper,  spirit,  and  charac- 
ter. That  is  to  say,  we  must  find  it  in  the  Spirit 
of  America. 

What  is  the  Spirit  of  America?  There  are  those 
who  tell  us  that  we  are  a  race  of  crude,  sordid  folk, 
sodden  in  materialism,  and  others  who  are  equally 


THE  EELIGION  OF  AMEEICA  57 

sure  that  we  are  a  tribe  of  fantastic  and  incurable 
idealists.  Both  are  right,  and  it  is  in  this  blend  of 
a  hearty,  wholesome,  robust  materialism  with  a 
noble  and  skyey  idealism  that  the  real  spirit  of  our 
Republic  is  to  be  found;  and  our  glory  is  that  we 
keep  the  two  together.  What  idealism  alone  leads 
to  and  ends  in,  history  has  shown  us  many  times — 
never  more  sadly  than  in  Russia  to-day.  What 
materialism  is,  when  it  has  conceived  and  brought 
forth  its  results,  was  shown  us  in  the  unimagina- 
tive, efficient  barbarism  of  Germany.  In  America 
we  hold  the  two  together,  that  so  our  materialism 
shall  incarnate  our  idealism,  and  our  idealism  con- 
secrate and  transfigure  our  materialism.  Because 
this  is  sOj  because  our  national  spirit  has  this  dual 
aspect,  it  is  a  blunder  to  leave  either  element  out  of 
account  in  the  interpretation  of  our  history.  His- 
torians are  apt  to  emphasize  the  purely  material 
causes  of  our  national  growth,  interpreting  it  as 
a  matter  of  chance,  of  geographical  environment, 
or,  as  IS  now  the  fashion,  of  economic  necessity. 
Thus  we  find  the  grand  traits  of  New  England 
character  attributed  to  harsh  climate,  sterile  soil, 
and  hostile  conditions,  and  the  Revolution  and  the 
Anti-Slavery  movement  explained  as  primarily  eco- 
nomic in  motive.  It  is  not  true.  While  no  one 
denies  the  influence  of  climate  and  industry,  it  is 
little  short  of  blasphemy  to  overlook  those  deeper 


68  THE  EELIGION  OF  AMEEICA 

causes — those  glowing  sentiments  that  have  fired 
the  hearts  of  our  people.  America  is  a  land  of 
commercial  opportunity,  but  our  hearts  are  not  in 
our  ledgers,  and  our  aspirations  are  not  expressed 
in  profits.  What  really  rules  our  nation  is  a  pas- 
sionate attachment  to  the  ideals  of  liberty,  justice, 
and  fraternity;  and  the  soul  of  our  people  finds 
voice,  not  in  records  of  bank  clearings,  but  in  the 
far-flung  visions  of  our  national  poets  and 
prophets. 

Stephen  Graham,  having  followed  the  Russian 
pilgrims  to  the  Holy  City,  went  with  the  poor  emi- 
grants to  America,  and  he  tells  us  that  it  was  a  jour- 
ney from  the  most  mystical  of  all  lands  to  the  most 
materialistic.  And  yet,  if  we  take  Tolstoy  as  the 
typical  man  of  Russia,  of  its  strength  and  its  weak- 
ness, its  lights  and  shadows,  and  place  him  along- 
side Lincoln,  the  most  typical  man  of  America, 
who  will  say  that  America  is  not  also  a  land  of 
mysticism?  Indeed,  when  Lincoln  fell  more  than 
fifty  years  ago,  it  was  Tolstoy  who  said:  "  He  was 
a  Christ  in  miniature.'*  To  say  that  America  is 
idealistic  is  only  another  way  of  saying  that  it  is 
intensely  religious ;  that  our  national  life  is  rooted 
in  spiritual  reality ;  and  this  profound  religiousness 
has  touched  our  history  to  finer  issues,  turning  an 
almanac  of  prices  into  an  Epic  of  Humanity — nay, 
into  a  chapter  in  the  Biography  of  God.     Consider 


THE  EELIGION  OP  AMEEIOA  59 

now  the  religious  meaning  of  the  fundamental 
ideas  and  aspirations  of  American  Hfe,  and  it  will 
become  clear  what  our  real  religion  is. 

Before  there  was  ever  an  American  Republic, 
thinkers  in  other  lands  had  wrought  out  the  gospel 
of  liberty,  equality  and  fraternity  as  a  thesis;  but 
our  fathers  proceeded  from  theory  to  practice. 
Holding  that  government  must  be  by  the  people 
and  for  the  people,  they  laid  the  foundations  of  a 
nation  dedicated  to  the  truth  that  all  men  are  cre- 
ated equal — equal  before  God,  before  the  law,  and 
in  their  right  to  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  hap- 
piness, each  having  inalienable  rights  which  no 
State  can  confer  or  deny — trusting  the  free  man  to 
guard  his  freedom  and  to  find  in  his  freedom  the 
solution  of  whatever  problems  may  arise.  That 
is  to  say,  they  reversed  the  theological  teaching  of 
ages  and  risked  the  fate  of  a  nation  on  faith  in  the 
essential  goodness  of  human  nature  and  its  kinship 
with  God!  Surely  he  is  blind  who  does  not  see 
how  radical  is  the  religious  meaning  of  this  first 
principle  of  our  American  theology.  America  is 
a  symbol  of  confidence  in  human  nature ;  it  assumes 
the  inherent  divinity  and  sacredness  of  man,  and 
our  history  has  justified  that  faith. 

Since  ours  is  a  government  of  the  people  by  the 
people,  thejiideous  dogma  of  the  State  as  an  ab- 
stract^entity,  a  collective  fiction,  leading  a  life  of 


60  THE  EELIGION  OP  AMEEIOA 

its  own,  above  and  beyond  the  lives  of  the  men 
who  compose  it ;  the  frightful  dogma  which  makes 
the  State  a  kind  of  mortal  god  who  can  do  no 
wrong,  an  irresponsible  Moloch  whose  necessity  is 
law,  and  to  which  liberty  and  right  are  to  be  sacri- 
ficed— that  dogma  has  no  place  in  America. 
Thank  God  we  know  nothing  of  the  atheism  that 
the  State  must  do  what  it  has  to  do,  law  or  no  law, 
right  or  no  right,  and  that  ends  justify  any  means, 
no  matter  how  infernal!  Once  a  French  King 
said:  "I  am  the  State";  and  that  is  what  every 
citizen  of  our  Republic  can  say.  We  are  the  State, 
and  if  the  nation  is  guilty  of  a  crime,  each  of  us  is 
guilty,  in  his  degree,  of  that  crime.  America,  by 
its  very  faith,  repudiates  the  infamy  of  Machia- 
velli,  Bismarck,  and  their  ilk,  holding  the  moral 
law  to  be  as  binding  upon  a  State  as  upon  a  man. 
In  other  words,  our  fathers,  who  were  your  sons, 
took  God  into  account  and  had  respect  for  His 
eternal  moral  order  when  they  founded  our  Re- 
public, basing  it,  as  they  did,  upon  a  religious  con- 
ception of  life  and  the  world. 

Always  a  new  faith  in  man  implies  and  involves 
a  new  vision  of  God.  It  was  natural  for  the  men 
who  bowed  low  when  the  chariot  of  Caesar  swept 
by  to  think  of  God  as  an  infinite  Emperor,  ruling 
the  world  with  an  arbitrary  and  irresponsible  al- 
mightiness.     But  for  men  who  live  in  a  Republic 


THE  EELIGION  OP  AMEEICA  61 

such  a  conception  is  a  caricature.  The  citizens  of 
a  free  land  do  not  beheve  that  God  is  an  infinite 
autocrat,  nor  do  they  bow  down  to  a  divine  des- 
potism. No,  they  worship  in  the  presence  of  an 
Eternal  Father,  who  is  always  and  everywhere  ac- 
cessible to  the  humblest  man  who  lifts  his  heart  in 
prayer.  The  logic  of  the  American  idea  leads  to 
faith  in  a  Divine  Love  universal  and  impartial,  all- 
encompassing  and  everlasting.  Elisha  Mulford 
was  in  accord  with  the  theology  of  his  country 
when  he  entitled  his  noble  book  *'  The  Republic  of 
God,"  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  he  would  fain  open 
the  gates  of  Heaven  a  little  wider  than  they  have 
ever  been.  Also,  if  the  faith  of  the  religion  of 
democracy  is  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  its  practice  is 
the  Brotherhood  of  Man. 

America  admits  men  of  all  nations  and  races 
into  her  national  fraternity,  granting  them  the  right 
of  equal  suffrage  and  citizenship.  They  walk 
with  us  along  our  avenues  of  trade;  they  sit  with 
us  in  our  halls  of  legislation ;  they  worship  with  us 
in  our  temples.  Americans  all,  each  race  brings 
some  rich  gift  of  enterprise,  idealism,  and  tradition, 
and  all  are  loyal  to  our  genius  of  liberty  under 
wise  and  just  laws.  Most  of  us  could  repeat  with 
slight  variations  the  words  of  John  Hay  when  he 
described  the  mingling  of  many  bloods  in  his  veins : 
"  When  I  look  to  the  springs  from  which  my  blood 


62  THE  EELIGION  OF  AMEEICA 

descends,  the  first  ancestors  I  ever  heard  of  were 
a  Scotchman  who  was  half-EngHsh  and  a  German 
woman  who  was  half-French.  Of  my  more  imme- 
diate progenitors,  my  mother  was  from  New  Eng- 
land and  my  father  from  the  South.  In  this  be- 
wilderment of  origin  and  experience,  I  can  only  put 
on  an  aspect  of  deep  humility  and  confess  that  I 
am  nothing  but  an  American."  America  knows 
nothing  of  the  Slavic  race,  nothing  of  the  Teutonic 
race,  nothing  of  the  Saxon  race,  but  only  the  Hu- 
man race,  one  in  origin  and  destiny,  as  it  must  be 
one  in  a  great  fellowship  of  sympathy  and  service. 
Such  is  the  ideal  and  prophecy  of  America,  and 
if  to  realize  it  all  at  once  is  denied  us,  surely  it 
means  much  to  see  it,  found  a  great  nation  upon  it, 
and  seek  practically  to  realize  it.  Lord  Bryce  said 
that  American  patriotism  is  itself  a  religion;  it  is 
one  with  the  spirit  of  all  true  religion,  since  the 
spirit  of  fraternity  is  the  essence  of  both.  After 
this  manner  the  religious  spirit  works  itself  out  in 
our  Republic,  coloured  by  the  political  conditions 
under  which  our  nation  has  grown — a  faith  pro- 
found and  fruitful,  hearty,  happy,  facing  the  future 
with  the  soul  of  adventure,  often  shadowed  but 
never  eclipsed,  sometimes  delayed  but  never  de- 
feated. If  it  is  revolutionary,  it  is  also  redeeming, 
offering  to  every  man  the  right  to  seek  that  truth 
by  which  no  man  was  ever  injured,  and  to  look  up 


THE  EELIGION  OF  AMERICA  63 

from  the  lap  of  Mother  Earth  into  the  face  of  God 
the  Father.     In  the  hymn  of  John  Hay  it  is  sung: 

Not  in  dumb  resignation 

We  lift  our  hands  on  high ; 
Not  like  the  nerveless  fatalist. 

Content  to  trust  and  die. 

Our  faith  springs  like  the  eagle, 

Who  soars  to  meet  the  sun, 
And  cries  exulting  unto  Thee, 

O  Lord,  Thy  will  be  done. 

Thy  will !    It  bids  the  weak  be  strong, 

It  bids  the  strong  be  just ; 
No  lip  to  fawn,  no  hand  to  beg, 

No  brow  to  seek  the  dust. 

Wherever  man  oppresses  man 

Beneath  Thy  liberal  sun, 
O  Lord,  be  there,  Thine  arm  made  bare^, 

Thy  righteous  will  be  done. 


v; 

THE  CHRIST  OF  TO-DAY 

"  Go  ye  therefore  and  teach  all  nations;  .  .-  .- 
and  lo,  I  am  with  you  alway." — Matt.  28 :  19,  20. 

"  Then  came  Jesus,  the  doors  being  shut,  and  stood 
in  the  midst." — John  20:26. 

SINCE  these  words  were  written  many  gen- 
erations of  men  have  Hved  and  wrought 
and  passed  away — poor  players  all,  great 
and  small  alike,  that  strutted  and  fretted  their 
hours  upon  the  stage  and  then  were  seen  no  more. 
The  things  they  were  busy  about,  and  deemed,  it 
may  be,  of  great  and  lasting  importance,  are  for- 
gotten now  along  with  them.  Dust  hath  returned 
to  dust.  Yet  we  are  gathered  here  to-day,  in  this 
far-off  age  and  land,  in  the  name  of  Jesus — our 
presence  a  visible  witness  of  the  truth  of  the  first 
text,  and  the  object  of  our  coming  set  forth  in  the 
second.  It  is  indeed  wonderful  if  one  thinks  about 
it  in  all  its  meanings  and  suggestions. 

More  wonderful  still  is  the  fact  that  we  do  not 
seek  a  m.ere  figure  in  history,  but  a  living  Christ 
who  is  the  personal  concern  of  every  one  of  us. 
For  it  is  He  who  brings  us  here  from  our  homes 

64 


THE  CHEIST  OP  TO-DAY  66 

and  our  places  of  labour — He,  and  nothing  else. 
Hither  we  foregather  seeking  One  who  hath  power 
to  teach  us  the  truth,  to  lighten  our  burdens,  and  to 
give  peace  to  our  hearts.  Such  is  the  perpetual  and 
manifold  ministry  of  Christ  to  the  soul  of  man,  and 
it  is  the  greatest  fact  in  history.  For  it  is  not 
merely  a  theory,  nor  yet  a  faith,  but  a  fact  that 
Christ  is  with  us  both  as  an  influence  "  in  diffusion 
ever  more  intense,"  and  as  a  Presence  to  comfort 
and  command.  No  other,  not  even  the  greatest  of 
the  sons  of  men,  has  anything  resembling  His 
persistent  and  redeeming  power  among  men.  It  is 
not  merely  that  something  in  the  example  of  Jesus 
or  in  His  teaching  holds  our  attention,  but  that  He 
Himself  is  with  us,  seeking  to  make  our  lives 
God-illumined  and  love-anointed. 

Compared  with  what  Christ  has  meant,  and  still 
means,  to  humanity,  His  brief  life  in  the  flesh  long 
ago  was  as  a  single  chord  to  a  vast  melody.  No 
one  can  trace  all  His  footsteps,  much  less  follow 
in  what  ways  He  has  wrought  upon  the  spirit  of 
the  race,  refining  it  and  seeking  to  make  beauty 
and  pity  prevail.  Only  the  art  of  an  angel  could 
write  such  a  history.  The  larger  life  of  Jesus  is 
continuous  with  history ;  and  if  any  one  asks  how 
we  know  it  is  so  to-day,  the  answer  is  because  He 
haunts  us,  because  we  cannot  get  away  from  Him, 
because  we  feel  Him,  know  Him,  and  have  fellow^ 


66  THE  CHEIST  OF  TO-DAY 

ship  with  Him.  Throughout  the  ages  since  He 
lived  He  has  been  the  better  Angel  of  our  human 
nature,  and  for  miUions  to-day  He  is  not  simply 
"  the  realized  ideal  of  humanity,"  but  the  only 
God  there  is.  When  in  the  secret  place  of  their 
souls  they  try  to  think  about  God  and  wonder 
what  He  is,  lo!  it  is  a  form  like  unto  the  Son  of 
Man  that  they  see  in  their  dreams.  So  far  as  they 
can  form  any  idea  of  God,  it  is  Jesus  infinitely  en- 
larged in  every  way.  Such  love  is  not  given  to  a 
mere  ideal,  nor  to  an  historic  figure,  nor  yet  to  a 
person  living  but  remote.  The  only  possible  ob- 
ject and  explanation  of  the  devotion  of  Christian 
history  is  a  Person  real,  living,  and  near. 

If  we  ask  for  the  reason  for  this  experience  it 
is  not  far  to  seek.  The  Infinite,  as  such,  is  not 
enough  for  the  highest  spiritual  life  of  man.  Or 
rather  it  is  too  much,  too  vague,  too  vast,  too  form- 
less. Humanity  must  have  some  fixed,  visible 
point,  some  focus,  so  to  put  it,  of  the  Eternal  about 
which  its  love  and  reverence  may  gather.  The  In- 
finite, to  be  Infinite,  must  contain  more  than  power, 
more  than  knowledge;  it  must  also  contain  truth, 
love,  purity,  justice,  joy.  But  these,  to  be  of  any 
effect  in  our  human  world,  must  be  personal.  The 
vague,  formless,  voiceless  Infinite  must  take  shape, 
as  the  limitless  sky  must  yield  its  cloud.  In  the 
life  of  Christ — in  His  character  and  personality — 


THE  CHEIST  OF  TO-DAY  67 

the  Eternal  did  take  lovely  and  revealing  shape, 
*'  full  of  grace  and  truth,"  and  that  is  why  the 
faiths,  hopes,  dreams  and  reverences  of  humanity 
are  entwined  about  Him.  He  makes  God  real, 
personal  and  eloquent  to  men,  and  when  that  vision 
is  before  us  we  know,  if  only  for  a  brief  time,  that 
at  the  heart  of  things  there  is  an  infinite  pity,  a 
benign  purpose  and  a  deathless  hope. 

Never  was  the  ministry  of  Christ  more  needed 
than  it  is  to-day,  when  all  things  tend,  with  a 
paralyzing  emphasis,  toward  the  impersonal. 
Surely  the  personality  of  Christ,  so  persistent  in 
history  and  so  creative  in  experience,  is  worthy  of 
the  attention  of  a  scientific  age  which  deals  with 
realities.  Such  a  power,  such  a  possibility,  such 
a  prophecy  must  have  been  embodied  in  nature 
from  the  beginning;  and  this  suggestion,  if  read 
aright,  is  a  way  of  approach  to  Christ  as  the  fact 
of  supernal  significance  in  nature,  as  He  is  the 
fact  of  supreme  import  in  history.  Ages  differ  in 
outlook  and  endeavour,  but  hitherto  each  age  has 
found  in  Christ  that  which  answered  its  questions 
and  satisfied  its  profoundest  needs.  Adown  the 
centuries  we  see  the  pilgrim  Christ  moving  in  new 
and  changed  times  and  amid  vast,  unexpected  de- 
velopments of  thought  and  life.  There  is  no 
reason  to  think  that  our  age  will  be  an  exception; 
but  the  angle  of  view,  which  gives  us  our  vision. 


68  THE  CHRIST  OF  TO-DAY 

has  changed,  and  Christ  must  be  reinterpreted  if 
we  are  to  find  in  Him  the  resource  equal  to  the 
aspirations  and  enterprises  of  this  stupendous  time. 
No  longer  can  we  be  content  with  the  Christ  of  the 
past  while  humanity  is  calling  for  a  Christ  of  to- 
day, girded  with  power  to  meet  its  wide-ranging 
issues  and  demands.     As  a  wise  teacher  has  said: 

"  Perhaps  it  may  be  reserved  for  the  coming  age  to 
combine  anew  in  a  nobler  whole  all  that  the  scholar- 
ship of  a  hundred  years  has  done  to  make  the  Jesus 
of  history  actual  again  with  that  most  heart-shaking 
and  world-changing  conviction  of  the  early  ages,  that 
here  we  have  the  absolute  and  final  manifestation  of 
the  Eternal  God,  that  these  human  lineaments  of  the 
Man  of  Nazareth  are  the  letters  and  syllables  of  the 
Eternal  Word.  Then  the  days  the  world  will  sorely 
need,  the  great  days  of  faith,  will  return,  for  '  Who 
is  he  that  overcometh  the  world,  but  he  that  believeth 
that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God  ? '  "  * 

If  there  is  one  thing  that  our  troubled  age  needs 
to-day  it  is  a  heart-shaking  and  world-changing 
conviction,  such  as  that  which  grasped  the  crum- 
bling classic  world  and  reshaped  it.  Speaking  of 
that  long-vanished  world,  Mommsen  said  on  the 
closing  page  of  his  "History'*:  "The  world  was 
growing  old,  and  not  even  Caesar  could  make  it 
young  again."  Yet  what  Caesar  was  unable  to  do, 
Christ  did.     Into  an  age  spiritually  sad,  morally 

*"The  Reasonableness  of  the  Christian  Faith,"  by 
D.  S.  Cairns. 


THE  CHRIST  OF  TO-DAY  69 

decaying  and  utterly  weary — an  age,  if  not  hope- 
less, at  least  unhopeful — He  made  His  advent, 
bringing  new  life,  new  ideas,  new  influences,  new 
expectations,  and  quickening  the  human  soul  in  a 
new  fashion.  It  was  like  the  coming  of  spring 
after  a  long  winter,  like  the  dawn  after  a  dark 
night.  One  has  only  to  turn  from  the  writings  of 
the  Stoics  to  the  little  Book  that  tells  the  story  of 
Jesus,  to  realize  what  a  difference  He  made.  In 
one  there  Is  a  noble  endurance ;  in  the  other  an  en- 
durance equally  noble,  but  also  an  energy  of  hope, 
a  warmth  of  love,  a  serenity  of  faith,  and  withal 
a  victorious  joy  hardly  known  on  earth  before 
Jesus  lodged  with  the  fishermen  by  the  sea. 

Surely  here  is  a  creative  force  of  faith,  and  "  a 
deep  power  of  joy,'*  which  we  need  in  a  world 
shattered  by  war  and  threatened  by  chaos.  There 
must  be  a  synthesis  of  Insight  and  experience,  a 
renewal  of  the  spiritual  forces  of  civilization,  if 
we  are  not  to  fall  into 

That  sad,  obscure,  anarchic  state 

When  God  unmakes  but  to  remake  the  world 

He  else  made  in  vain,  which  must  not  be. 

Slowly  It  is  dawning  upon  us  that  the  world  of 
men  can  be,  and  of  right  ought  to  be,  a  community, 
in  which  democracy  and  religion  are  two  aspects 
of  one  and  the  same  life.     But  the  world  com- 


70  THE  CHEIST  OF  TO-DAY 

munity  must  include  God,  since  every  impulse  to- 
ward it  is  of  His  Spirit.  Without  Him,  however 
gregarious  men  may  be,  however  bound  to  one 
another  by  economic  interest,  they  yet  live  in  an 
alien  place.  With  Him,  the  world  of  men  and 
things  acquires  full  social  character  and  value.  In 
short,  if  we  are  to  have  an  organized  world  we 
must  have  a  world-soul,  some  inner  unity  that 
shall  do  for  mankind  at  large  what  class  feeling 
does  for  a  class,  and  what  patriotism  does  for  a 
nation.  Such  a  unity  must  be  found  in  something 
real  and  abiding,  rooted  in  habits  and  sentiments 
as  well  as  in  reason — that  is  to  say,  in  religion. 
As  we  may  read : 

"  To  reveal  God  aright  and  to  fulfil  its  function  in 
human  life,  religion  must  become  more  moral  and 
more  democratic.  The  world- community  can  believe 
in  no  merely  tribal  or  national  God,  with  favourite 
children  whose  battles  He  fights,  whose  ambitions  He 
coddles  and  to  whom  alone  He  grants  glimpses  of  His 
will ;  nor  in  a  merely  sovereign,  autocratic  God,  who 
exploits  men  without  feeling  for  their  misery  or  re- 
gard for  their  desire;  nor  in  an  imperturable  God 
whose  chief  virtue  is  His  changelessness.  The  su- 
preme bond  of  the  world-community  will  be  a  God  of 
right  and  justice,  who  owns  all  men  as  His  children 
and  who  steadfastly  seeks  with  them,  and  through 
them,  the  common  good."  * 

*  From  a  Declaration  of  Principles  of  the  Religious 
Education  Association  of  America. 


THE  CHEIST  OF  TO-DAY  71 

Nothing  less  than  the  God  revealed  in  Christ  is 
equal  to  a  need  so  insistent,  so  profound,  and  so 
pathetic.  Only  in  Christ — in  His  Spirit,  His  prin- 
ciples, His  personality,  and,  above  all,  in  His 
vision  of  God — may  we  ever  hope  to  find  the 
truth,  the  tie,  the  spirit  by  v^hich  the  world  can 
be  unified  and  held  together  by  a  bond  stronger 
than  force  or  even  law.  If  Christ  is  "  the  same 
yesterday,  and  forever,"  He  can  evoke  in  mankind 
that  sentiment  of  spiritual  solidarity,  that  sense  of 
kinship,  comradeship  and  service  without  which 
all  our  outward  forms  of  organizations — our 
"  machinery  of  friendship " — will  be  fragile,  if 
not  futile.  But  to  make  that  ministry  possible  we 
must  rediscover  Christ  in  our  thought,  our  ex- 
perience, our  obedience,  and,  like  Augustine  of 
Canterbury,  take  a  whole  Christ  for  our  salvation, 
a  whole  Bible  for  our  staff,  a  whole  Church  for 
our  fellowship,  and  a  whole  world  for  our  parish. 
Exclusiveness  must  be  excluded ;  no  partial  thought, 
no  limited  vision  will  do.  Henceforth  we  must 
think  in  terms  of  all  humanity,  and  in  the  assur- 
ance that  what  Christ  does  and  has  done  for  in- 
dividuals, to  which  experience  past  and  present 
bears  shining  witness,  He  can  and  will  do  for  so- 
ciety as  a  whole — that  is,  help  the  world  to  find 
its  soul. 

First,  as  to  our  thought  of  Christ — for  we  must 


72  THE  CHEIST  OF  TO-DAY 

think,  as  well  as  act,  if  our  efforts  are  to  be  in- 
telligent and  fruitful.  For  years  past,  in  response 
to  a  deep  need  and  amidst  many  agitations,  a  more 
comprehensive  and  satisfying  thought  of  Christ 
has  been  taking  form.  It  has  been  enriched  of  late 
by  the  new  study  of  the  Jesus  of  history,  by  the 
more  vivid  social  passion  of  our  day,  and  by  the 
revival  of  a  new  mysticism  free  from  the  perils 
that  beset  the  old — a  mysticism  not  only  individual 
but  social,  not  only  contemplative  but  active.  To- 
day we  may  say  that  our  thought  of  Christ  is 
neither  orthodox  nor  unitarian,  neither  liberal  nor 
evangelical ;  it  is  all  these — and  more !  Slowly  we 
are  coming  to  a  conception,  a  vision,  an  experience 
of  Christ  in  which  the  partial  ideas  of  the  past  are 
gathered  up  and  fused  into  a  larger  whole,  render- 
ing old  debates  obsolete.  If  the  harmony  has  not 
always  been  kept  between  history  and  experience, 
it  is  better  adjusted  to-day  than  a  few  years  ago, 
when  it  seemed  that  Jesus  as  a  Reformer  was  su- 
preme. But  time  is  teaching  us  that  the  reality  of 
Christ  is  too  large,  too  rich,  too  varied  for  any  one 
mind,  any  one  sect,  or  any  one  program  to  re- 
veal, and  that  we  must  know  Him  in  fellowship. 

Seeking  the  Christ  of  to-day,  we  find  ourselves 
going  back — or  rather  forward — into  the  at- 
mosphere and  colour  of  the  New  Testament.  The 
vivid  realism  of  the  first  three  Gospels — etching 


THE  CHEIST  OF  TO-DAY  73 

the  real  Jesus  in  the  air  and  setting  of  His  age,  as 
His  disciples  knew  Him — the  personal  idealism  of 
the  Fourth  Gospel,  with  its  deep  insights  and  in- 
timacies, unite  in  our  thought  and  faith  with  the 
glowing  mysticism  and  cosmic  universalism  of  St. 
Paul.  Above  all,  and  through  all,  we  are  learn- 
ing with  St.  Paul  to  read  the  dark,  cryptic  story  of 
life  upon  the  earth  as  a  threefold  drama  of  revela- 
tion, in  nature,  in  history,  in  redemption,  and  to 
find  in  Christ — in  His  life,  His  Spirit,  His  poign- 
ant and  creative  compassion — the  key  and  clue  to 
it,  revealing  all  that  we  know,  or  need  to  know,  of 
the  Father  of  man.  And  the  vision  of  God  in 
Christ — the  over-brooding,  indwelling,  suffering, 
redeeming  God  of  the  Gospel — so  far  from  being 
obscured  by  the  awful  apocalypse  of  the  war,  has 
been  made  more  real,  alike  in  personal  experience 
and  in  social  aspiration;  so  that,  in  the  Christ  of 
to-day  men  do  know,  as  of  old,  the  living  God  in 
His  eternal  good-will. 

Second,  as  to  obeying  Christ,  the  necessity  of 
it  is  as  vivid  as  its  difficulty — and  that  means  much. 
How  difficult  it  is  each  of  us  can  testify,  and  it  is 
no  wonder  that  men  hold  that  principles  like  those 
of  Jesus,  which  are  so  fundamental  that  they  be- 
come the  guiding  stars  of  all  ages,  cannot  literally 
be  obeyed  this  side  of  heaven.  Still,  if  Christian 
ethic  cannot  all  at  once  be  a  fulfilment  of  the  ideal. 


74  THE  CHEIST  OP  TO-DAY 

it  can  and  must  be  an  honest,  earnest,  tireless  effort 
to  adjust  human  life,  in  all  its  relations,  to  the 
ideals  of  Christ.  By  the  same  token,  it  must  ad- 
vance with  ever-widening  horizons  and  ever-deep- 
ening intensities  as  men  pragmatically  work  out 
what  they  know  of  His  ideals.  For  never  has  it 
been  more  clearly  seen  that  the  laws  of  Jesus  are 
like  the  great  laws  of  nature,  and  that  there  can 
be  no  real  peace,  no  security,  no  happiness  until 
they  are  applied  to  personal  life,  to  industry,  to 
education,  to  the  Church,  and  to  the  larger  rela- 
tions of  nation  to  nation.  This  at  least  is  plain: 
apart  from  Christ  there  is  no  hope  at  all  that  the 
dreams  of  those  who  are  struggling  for  a  better 
social  order,  for  justice,  sympathy  and  beauty,  will 
be  fulfilled. 

The  religion  of  Jesus  is  love,  comradeship,  fel- 
lowship, in  which  men  live  together  as  the  sons  of 
God  in  mutual  service  and  good-will.  But  when  a 
man  of  to-day  tries  to  put  that  spirit  into  social 
practice,  he  finds  himself  in  an  order  and  habit  of 
life  created  by  and  intended  to  serve  a  very  dif- 
ferent spirit.  There  is  the  difKiculty,  and  it  is  idle 
to  say  that  it  is  not  real  and  formidable.  None 
the  less,  we  must  accept  the  challenge  of  it,  demon- 
strating a  more  excellent  way.  If  the  world  is  to 
become  Christian  in  any  real  sense,  the  will  to 
fellowship  must  prevail  over  the  will  to  rivalry. 


THE  CHEIST  OF  TO-DAY  75 

and  that,  too,  without  losing  what  is  useful  and 
noble  in  the  spirit  of  rivalry.  It  is  a  stupendous 
task.  It  will  take  time  and  patience  and  wisdom 
and  heroic  sacrifice,  but  it  can  be  done.  Faith  may 
often  be  tempted  to  cynicism  before  the  end  is  in 
sight,  and  the  love  of  many  will  wax  cold,  but  we 
must  never  allow  ourselves  to  doubt  the  issue.  The 
alternative  is  appalling.  Two  ways  are  set  before 
us,  either  we  must  follow  Christ  or  turn  away  from 
Him.  Both  ways  are  difficult,  but  one  is  hopeless, 
and  we  dare  not  follow  it,  unless  we  are  willing  to 
resign  ourselves  to  endless  feud,  faction  and  strife, 
and  live  under  the  shadow  of  chaos. 

Here,  then,  is  the  fair  challenge  of  a  sad  and  dis- 
tracted age  to  the  followers  of  the  Christ  of  to-day. 
Are  we  ready  to  meet  it?  If  we  are  not  to  fail, 
the  Church  must  be  the  home  of  good-will,  the 
centre  of  unity,  the  fountain  of  fellowship,  making 
actual  in  the  spirit  and  form  of  her  life  the  reality 
of  her  initial  faith  in  the  essential  unity  of  all  men 
under  God.  At  least,  we  must  have  one  place 
where  the  will  to  fellowship  can  have  a  chance  to 
grow  and  be  glorified,  if  it  is  to  influence  the 
structure  of  the  social  order.  Is  Christ  divided? 
Wherefore,  then,  our  sectarianism,  our  intolerance, 
and  our  spiritual  snobbishness?  In  the  long  run, 
as  Donald  Hankey  said,  the  failure  of  the  Church 
is  a  failure  of  love,  a  failure  of  fellowship.     If  it 


76  THE  CHEIST  OF  TO  DAY 

is  impossible  for  men  to  be  united  in  the  fellow- 
ship of  Christ,  then  Christianity  is  impracticable, 
and  had  better  be  given  up.  But  it  will  not  be 
given  up.  Christ  will  yet  have  His  way.  If  the 
Church  is  untrue  to  the  ideal  of  her  Master,  the 
candlestick  will  be  removed  from  her  altar  and  the 
light  will  shine  elsewhere.  Sooner  or  later  some 
group  will  realize  the  will  to  fellowship  and  draw 
to  itself  those  who  are  worthy  to  be  called  the  dis- 
ciples of  Christ. 

Such  a  Leader,  Teacher  and  Saviour  is  the 
Christ  of  to-day,  and  each  of  us  may  find  in  Him 
our  faith  for  to-day  and  our  hope  for  the  morrow, 
our  cleansing  from  sin  and  our  comfort  in  sorrow. 
Whatever  else  may  be  dim,  here  is  the  Way,  the 
Truth  and  the  Life.  Other  voices  may  be  uncer- 
tain, but  our  own  hearts  tell  us  that  by  as  much  as 
we  trust  Him  and  obey  Him,  by  so  much  do  we 
really  learn  the  worth  and  meaning  of  our  days. 
It  means  much  to  know  the  road  and  the  direction ; 
but  it  means  more  to  know  that,  while  others  vanish 
from  our  side,  there  is  One  who  is  going  all  the 
way,  even  through  the  Valley  of  the  Shadow: 

And  without  a  screen  at  last  is  seen 

The  Presence  in  which  I  have  always  been. 


VI 

THE  JUDGMENT  OP  THE  CHURCH* 

"  He  that  hath  an  ear,  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit 
saith  to  the  churches" — Rev.  2:^. 

THE  Book  of  Revelation  is  the  Gospel  of 
that  Unfinished  Life  which  slowly  shapes 
the  world,  a  vision  not  of  the  past,  but  of 
the  Eternal  Present  in  v/hich  the  Living  Christ  is 
fighting  His  way  to  victory  in  the  awful  courses  of 
history.  Its  spirit  is  immediate,  instant,  urgent, 
as  if  the  veil  were  suddenly  lifted  and  we  perceived 
the  forces  moving  behind  events  and  the  spiritual 
conflict  impending.  Here  is  revealed  the  Christ 
not  only  of  the  four  Gospels,  but  of  the  four 
corners  of  the  earth;  the  Christ  of  to-day,  not 
awaited  as  a  portent  in  the  heavens,  but  a  living 
Presence  with  eyes  of  flame.  His  voice  as  the  sound 
of  many  waters,  unveiled  anew  in  the  stupendous 
overturnings  of  history.     It  is  the  Eternal  Christ, 

*  Preached  at  Glasgow,  as  fraternal  delegate  from  the 
Congregational  Union  of  England  and  Wales  to  the 
Scottish  Union,  May  6,  1919. 

77 


78   THE  JUDGMENT  OP  THE  CHURCH 

"  no  more  to  be 
Of  captivity  the  thrall. 
But  the  one  God,  All  in  All, 
King  of  Kings,  Lord  of  Lords, 
As  His  servant  John  received  the  words, 
*  I  died  and  live  for  evermore ! '  " 

No  one  can  read  without  a  quick  throb  of  the 
heart  the  opening  vision  of  the  flaming  Christ 
judging  the  seven  churches  of  Asia,  while  the  text 
recurs  again  and  again  as  a  refrain.  The  Re- 
deemer-Judge commends  each  one  of  the  Churches 
for  its  faith,  its  patience,  its  fortitude,  and  its 
charity,  but  in  each  He  finds  something  lacking. 
One  is  too  rich,  another  has  fallen  into  error,  an- 
other is  lukewarm,  and  still  another  has  a  name  to 
live  but  is  dead.  The  order  is  first  praise,  then 
rebuke,  and  finally  a  call  to  repentance,  else  the 
candlestick  will  be  removed.  To-day,  to-morrow, 
forever,  that  judgment  goes  on,  since  the  Church 
must  renew  its  life  and  revise  its  method  contin- 
ually in  response  to  the  living  Word  of  God  spoken 
in  the  facts,  forces,  ideas,  and  events  of  each  new 
age.  In  the  nature  of  things  it  must  be  so,  be- 
cause the  religion  of  Jesus  is  a  life,  a  spirit,  an  in- 
spiration, and  as  such  is  not  to  be  fixed  in  any  form 
of  dogma  or  rite  or  custom  or  method,  but  will 
forever  be  breaking  into  human  life  with  new  and 
revolutionary  power. 


THE  JUDGMENT  OP  THE  CHUECH   79 

Long  ago  Schiller  said  that  "  the  history  of  the 
world  is  the  judgment  of  the  world/'  and  the 
phrase  flashed  out  in  the  volcanic  days  through 
which  we  have  been  living.  It  is  equally  true  of 
the  Church,  and  doubly  so  in  a  day  of  the  right 
hand  of  God  when  all  human  things  arc  tried  as 
by  fire.  Yesterday  was  a  testing  time,  as  to-day 
and  to-morrow  will  be.  The  Church  was  not 
found  wholly  wanting  in  the  infinite  anguish  of 
yesterday,  nor  will  it  utterly  fail  in  the  bewildering 
perplexity  of  to-day.  It  is  permitted  us  to  believe 
that  the  Saviour-Judge  sees  something  to  praise  in 
His  sorely  tried  Churches  in  this  strange  time,  but 
He  finds  much — oh !  how  much — to  rebuke.  Again, 
as  in  days  of  old,  comes 'the  call  to  repentance,  lest 
the  candlestick  be  withdrawn.  Only  a  humble  and 
penitent  Church  may  inherit  the  world  now  in  the 
making ;  only  a  holy  and  heroic  Church  can  be  the 
Body  of  Christ  to  a  day  like  this.  With  abject 
humility  the  Church  must  confess  the  sins  of  the 
past,  its  lack  of  adventurous  faith,  its  narrowness 
of  vision  and  of  sympathy,  its  bigoted  divisions — 
all,  indeed,  that  mars  fellowship,  destroys  brother- 
hood, or  limits  the  personal  and  social  realization 
of  the  mighty  power  of  the  Gospel. 

For  what  is  the  Church,  and  what  is  its  mission 
and  service  to  the  troubled  world  of  to-day?  It  is 
one  of  three  old,  divine  institutions  by  which  the 


80   THE  JUDGMENT  OF  THE  CHUECH 

higher  life  of  man  is  nourished,  the  other  two  be- 
ing the  Family  and  the  State.  All  three  are  sacred, 
all  three  are  religious — citizenship  as  much  a  sacra- 
ment as  prayer — and  not  the  Church  alone.  If 
any  one  of  the  three  is  to  be  selected  as  more  re- 
ligious and  of  diviner  sanction  than  the  rest,  it  must 
be  the  family.  It  came  first,  and  it  satisfies  more 
human  needs  than  any  other,  if,  indeed,  the  other 
two  may  not  be  said  to  be  extensions  of  its  idea 
and  influence — as  Jesus  taught  concerning  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven.  Not  unnaturally,  the  three 
primary  institutions  are  often  confused,  not  only 
because  all  are  alike  religious,  and  because  the 
same  man  is  in  all  three,  but  because  each  glides 
into  the  other  and  their  functions  are  interwoven. 
None  the  less,  they  are  distinct,  and  if  we  say  that 
the  Family  is  the  home  of  the  affections  and  the 
State  is  the  institute  of  common  rights,  the  Church 
is  the  home  of  the  soul — the  fellowship  of  faith 
and  service,  of  vision  and  hope.  Once  we  have  de- 
fined the  genius  of  the  Church  and  its  function  in 
the  life  of  man,  we  begin  to  see  how  much  of  the 
criticism  aimed  at  it  is  wide  of  the  mark,  failing  to 
see  its  sovereign  function  as  a  witness  to  spiritual 
reality,  a  fountain  of  moral  life,  and  a  teacher  of 
that  truth  which  makes  all  other  truth  true. 

Such  is  the  institution,  as  old  as  the  race,  to 
which  Jesus  Himself  belonged,  in  which  He  lived 


THE  JUDGMENT  OF  THE  CHUECH   81 

and  wrought,  to  which,  dying,  He  gave  His  name, 
in  which  He  still  lives  to  perpetuate  His  incarna- 
tion, and  to  which  He  entrusted  His  gospel  of  re- 
demption. The  Church,  then,  is  a  fellowship,  and 
the  sorest  need  of  a  world  torn  by  war,  grown 
grey  with  grief,  and  trembling  on  the  edge  of 
chaos,  is  the  fellowship  of  humanity  in  God  and  of 
the  life  of  God  in  humanity;  a  fellowship  of  souls, 
of  families,  of  classes,  of  nations,  of  races — free, 
reverent,  inclusive,  prophetic — in  which  the  vision 
of  God  in  Christ  is  the  key  to  the  meaning  of  the 
world,  making  Fatherhood  the  supreme  fact  in  our 
faith  and  thinking  and  Brotherhood  the  ruling 
spirit  and  law  of  life.  To-day,  as  always,  the  first 
and  chief  mission  of  the  Church — at  once  its  oppor- 
tunity and  its  obligation — is  to  reveal  God  the 
Father  to  humanity ;  to  hold  up  the  Christian  ideal 
by  which  progress  should  be  guided  and  judged; 
to  test  institutions  and  programs  by  their  ap- 
proach to  the  mind  of  Christ;  and  to  inspire  all 
whom  it  can  reach  with  resolution  to  do  and  be 
the  things  that  are  necessary  to  make  the  Spirit  of 
Jesus  prevail  in  all  the  relations  of  mankind. 

What  of  the  Church  of  to-day?  One  thing  is 
plain:  to  make  the  victorious  Church  of  To-mor- 
row out  of  the  divided,  ineffective  Churches  of 
to-day  we  need  not  only  reorganization,  but  re- 
generation ;  not  so  much  ecclesiastical  mechanics  as 


82   THE  JUDGMENT  OF  THE  CHUECH 

spiritual  dynamics.  Manifestly,  a  united  world 
requires  a  united  Church,  but  it  must  be  a  Church 
renewed  and  empowered;  a  Church  of  the  open 
mind,  the  fervent  heart,  and  the  prophetic  voice. 
If  one  Church  has  lost  its  spiritual  vitality,  it  is  not 
clear  that  it  will  regain  it  by  union  with  another 
Church  equally  dead.  The  redemption  of  the 
Church  is  not  by  reunion,  which  may  be  of  little 
meaning — the  less  so  if  it  is  to  be  a  mere  ag- 
glomeration in  which  historic  loyalties  and  varie- 
ties of  witness  are  erased  in  a  blur  of  ambiguity — 
but  by  a  renewal  of  its  spiritual  life  and  power. 
If  we  are  to  apply  Christianity  to  social  questions, 
as  we  talk  so  much  of  doing,  there  will  be  little 
result  unless  it  has  more  power  than  it  has  now. 
The  primary  thing  is  not  to  get  more  people  to 
profess  dogmas  and  observe  rites — useful  as  these 
may  be — but  to  send  forth  into  the  world  more  men 
and  women  filled  with  the  spirit  of  Jesus.  For, 
when  all  is  said  about  economic  law,  the  future 
of  the  world  will  be  according  to  the  character  of 
its  citizens,  and  the  greatest  power  for  the  making 
of  character  is  Christ.  There  are  rich  endow- 
ments of  character  stored  up  in  men  everywhere 
that  are  never  dreamed  of  until  discovered  and  re- 
leased by  contact  with  Christ.  This  is  the  oppor- 
tunity of  the  Church,  and  here  its  responsibility  lies. 
Its  work  is  to  bring  men  to  look  upon  life  as  Jesus 


THE  JUDGMENT  OF  THE  OHUECH   83 

looked  upon  it — make  them  disciples  of  His  faith, 
His  courage,  and  His  brotherly  heart  of  good- 
will— and  send  them  into  the  world  to  persuade 
men  to  become  little  brothers  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 
Since  the  Church  cannot  bless  others  with  a  life  it 
does  not  possess,  it  must  renew  its  life  of  vision 
and  power  in  a  higher  fellowship. 

First  of  all,  fellowship  with  God  the  Father  of 
Man  is  the  profound  need,  the  synthesis  of  all 
needs,  in  the  world  of  to-day.  We  are  living  in  a 
time  of  twilight — pray  God,  a  morning  twilight — 
not  clear,  not  dark ;  an  age  of  intense  social  activity 
and  pathetic  spiritual  wistfulness;  an  age  whose 
mood  is  not  crass  denial,  as  in  days  agone,  but 
spiritual  bewilderment  and  indifference — ^vague  in 
its  thought  of  God  and  bereft  of  vivid,  creative  fel- 
lowship with  Him.  At  the  heart  of  the  present 
unrest  and  discord — as  we  may  know  by  looking 
into  our  own  hearts — there  is  a  haunting  hunger 
for  a  profounder  and  more  satisfying  experience 
of  God ;  a  more  personal  sense  of  a  personal  God. 
Here  is  the  dilemma:  we  see  that  the  meaning  life 
lies  in  "  the  redemptive  making  of  personality," 
and  yet  the  tendency  of  thought  is  toward  the  im- 
personal. By  the  same  token,  no  philosophical 
Absolute,  no  hierarchy  of  natural  laws,  no  infinite 
Autocrat  to  whom  men  are  but  puppets,  no  fum- 
bling finite  God,  will  meet  the  needs  of  an  age 


84   THE  JUDGMENT  OE^  THE  CHUEOH 

which  reads  religion  in  terms  of  democracy  and 
democracy  in  terms  of  religion.  Only  a  God  in 
worshipping  whom  we  are  on  the  summit  of  moral 
devotion,  spiritual  vision  and  social  achievement, 
and  in  serving  whom  we  best  serve  our  fellows  by 
building  heroic  character  into  a  brotherly  world- 
order,  can  meet  the  needs  of  this  stupendous  time. 
Otherwise  we  are  left  to  struggle  together  or  drift 
apart  in  the  midst  of  forces  we  can  neither  under- 
stand nor  resist,  groping  toward  a  new  and  more 
humane  social  order,  but  unable  to  find  it,  having 
no  vision  of  God  equal  to  our  ethical  ideal.  Only 
the  vision  of  God  in  Christ,  in  following  whom  we 
are  lifted  into  the  realm  of  moral  values,  personal 
relations,  and  social  mysticism,  is  adequate  to  the 
demands  of  an  age  of  world-rebuilding.  Of  that 
vision  the  Church  is  at  once  the  witness  and  the 
interpreter,  and  its  supreme  mission  to-day  is  to 
make  it  real,  eloquent,  and  commanding  in  the 
world  of  to-day. 

Fellowship,  no  less,  of  man  with  man  it  is  the 
function  of  the  Church  to  cherish  and  exalt,  since, 
if  we  are  to  find  God,  we  must  find  Him  and  serve 
Him  together.  Surely,  in  an  age  hungry  for  fel- 
lowship like  the  age  in  which  we  live,  the  Church 
has  an  appealing  opportunity,  if  it  is  wise  enough 
and  brave  enough  to  take  it.  The  modern  man  is 
not  only  wistful,  but  lonely  of  soul,  and  his  yearn- 


THE  JUDGMENT  OP  THE  CHUECH   85 

ing  for  fellowship  is  deep  and  passionate,  as  cults, 
crafts,  guilds,  and  fraternities  without  number 
make  plain.  For  that  reason,  if  the  Church  is  to 
serve  this  age,  it  must  realize  the  Will  to  Fellow- 
ship, and  no  longer  set  up  dogmas,  rites,  and  orders 
to  limit  and  exclude.  Yet  no  failure  of  the  Church 
is  more  pitifully  tragic  than  its  failure  of  fellow- 
ship, even  in  its  own  life,  and  still  more  in  extend- 
ing it  to  the  multitudes  whose  spiritual  loneliness  is 
so  appalling.  A  famous  Bishop  thinks  it  well  that 
his  people  should  pray  with  Free  Church  folk  in 
times  of  national  peril,  but  he  prefers  that  the  meet- 
ing be  held  "  on  neutral  ground,  that  is  either  out 
of  doors  or  in  some  building  other  than  church  or 
chapel." "  Truly,  if  we  cannot  pray  together,  ex- 
cept on  some  spiritual  No  Man's  Land,  talk  of  re- 
union seems  idle.  Such  barriers  must  be  broken 
down  and  left  behind,  along  with  much  else  that  be- 
longed to  an  age  now  ending,  if  we  are  to  meet  the 
needs  of  the  new  world.  Not  identity  of  opinion 
about  Jesus,  but  sympathy  with  His  spirit  and  the 
wish  to  follow  in  His  way  and  learn  of  Him, 
should  be  the  basis  of  fellowship  in  the  Church  of 
to-day,  as  it  was  at  the  beginning. 

More  tragic  still  is  the  failure  of  fellowship  in 
respect  to  the  classes  into  which  society  is  divided — 
like   geologic   strata — making  the   brotherly  life 
' "  Dominant  Ideas,"  by  Bishop  Gore* 


86   THE  JUDGMENT  OF  THE  CHUECH 

seem  like  a  fourth  dimension.  If  we  analyze  the 
membership  of  our  churches — especially  Protestant 
churches — we  find  among  them  few  who  work  for 
a  daily  wage,  and  most  of  those  are  of  the  more 
skilled  and  educated  workers.  The  early  Chris- 
tians won  by  the  apostolic  preachers  were  almost 
entirely  of  the  lower  middle  classes,  as  are  nearly 
all  of  the  first  converts  on  our  mission  fields.  But 
every  pastor  will  testify  from  the  facts  of  his  own 
parish  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  mix  the  lower 
and  middle  classes  in  his  church,  much  less  to  bring 
the  wage-earner  into  fellowship  with  the  employing 
class.  It  has  been  so  always.  But  must  it  always 
be  so?  Is  there  no  dynamic  of  brotherhood  in  the 
Gospel  of  Christ  to  overcome  the  class  conscious- 
ness based  upon  trade,  title,  or  cash  account? 
Cannot  the  arms  of  Christ — still  outstretched  on 
the  Cross — be  loosened  to  clasp  us  in  one  embrace, 
without  regard  to  race  or  rank?  Of  course,  in 
every  time  the  Church  has  taught  right  personal 
relations  within  the  accepted  social  system,  but  has 
it  no  function  to  perform,  no  power  to  employ,  in 
changing  the  systems  for  the  better f 

No  doubt  it  Is  true  that  the  first  and  chief  in- 
terest of  the  Church  Is  the  redemption  and  train- 
ing of  souls,  but  can  she  fulfil  that  mission  and  be 
indifferent,  or  even  neutral,  In  the  conflict  in  which 
the  souls  of  men  are  fighting  for  life?     We  need 


THE  JUDGMENT  OF  THE  CHITECH      87 

a  new  synthesis  which  shall  see  the  ideal  of  the 
race  in  socialized  individuals  and  in  social  relation- 
ships that  find  their  fulfilment  in  noble  personali- 
ties. The  human  personality  is  the  thing  of  high- 
est and  most  ultimate  worth  in  the  universe,  so  far 
as  we  can  see,  because  it  reveals  those  values  which 
alone  give  dignity  and  meaning  to  existence.  But 
personality  is  a  social  creation,  and  whatever  ham- 
pers, thwarts,  or  degrades  it  is  to  be  fought  as  an 
enemy.  Here  the  Church  finds  its  marching  orders 
to  lead  a  sleepless  crusade  on  behalf  of  a  world  fit 
to  live  in,  where  all  may  have  a  chance  to  enter 
into  the  full  spiritual  inheritance  of  the  race.  If 
it  is  true  to  its  faith  and  worthy  of  its  Master — 
who  held  that  it  were  better  for  a  man  never  to 
have  been  born  than  to  cause  one  of  "  these  little 
ones  "  to  stumble — it  will  not  rest  nor  grow  weary 
while  poor  housing,  sweatshops,  tenements,  unjust 
wages,  industrial  inequity,  the  butchery  of  war,  and 
manifold  social  evils  ruin  human  souls.  Against 
all  these  evils,  and  others  of  like  kind,  the  Church 
must  wage  war  without  quarter,  as  Isaiah  and 
Amos  fought  the  evils  of  their  day,  demanding 
justice  for  the  poor,  the  oppressed,  and  the  victims 
of  social  injury. 

Not  in  protest  alone,  but  also,  and  much  more, 
in  behalf  of  the  great  constructive  enterprises  now 
afoot,  the  Church  must  bear  collective  witness, 


8S      THE  JUDGMENT  OF  THE  CHUECH 

making  an  enlightened  and  organized  Christian 
conscience  felt.  For,  whatever  else  Christianity 
may  or  may  not  be,  there  is  none  to  deny  that  it  is 
an  international  religion.  Jesus  struck  the  uni- 
versal note,  over  against  the  idea  which  identified 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  with  any  single  race  or 
nation.  He  was  a  world-Teacher — as  He  is  a 
world-Redeemer — and  His  Gospel  knew  no  limits 
of  race,  rank,  or  frontier.  Such  a  religion  is  more 
than  ever  needed  to-day  in  rebuke  of  the  false  and 
fateful  idea  of  nationality,  born  of  the  Napoleonic 
era  and  fashioned  to  sanctify  political  greed  and 
military  conquest.  It  is  not  Christian,  and  never 
will  be  until  it  is  made  to  yield  to  the  spirit  of 
service.  In  letters  of  fire  it  is  being  written  be- 
fore our  eyes  that  the  hope  of  the  world  lies  in  the 
spiritual  guide,  which  to  the  sanction  of  the  World- 
Parliament  now  formed  must  add  the  consecration 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  The  world  waits  for 
the  Church  to  realize  its  unity — not  its  uniformity, 
much  less  a  gigantic  ecclesiasticism — as  an  inter- 
national fellowship,  as  against  the  false,  class  In- 
ternationals which  have  usurped  its  place  and  its 
right  to  lead.  This  at  least  is  true,  hide  it  from 
ourselves  as  we  may:  in  the  world  to-day  the  in- 
dividual and  the  social  gospel  belong  together,  and 
neither  will  long  survive  the  shipwreck  of  the 
other. 


THE  JUDGMENT  OF  THE  OHUECH   89 

Not  for  a  day,  not  for  an  hour,  must  the  Church 
pause  in  its  labour  of  education,  of  evangehsm,  or 
of  comfort,  much  less  must  it  retrench  its  grand 
missionary  enterprise.  Even  now  the  things  for 
which  it  stands  are  less  potent  than  once  they  were, 
because  our  young  people  are  allowed  to  grow  up 
largely  in  ignorance  of  what  its  teaching  and  pur- 
pose really  are.  It  is  manifest  to  all  that  one  age 
has  ended  and  another  is  beginning  with  new  out- 
looks, new  demands,  new  opportunities.  Some 
things  must  be  left  behind.  Other  methods  must 
be  employed,  though  we  may  go  back  and  learn 
much  from  the  ministry  of  Dr.  Chalmers  in  Glas- 
gow, of  which  we  read  in  his  series  of  pamphlets 
on  "  The  Civic  and  Christian  Economy  of  Our 
I^arge  Towns."  Our  Christian  message  itself,  as 
Pere  Gratry  said,  must  be  restated  to  meet  the 
needs  of  a  new  and  strange  time  in  accordance  with 
the  eternal  antiquity  of  the  truth.  From  the  first 
the  Church  has  been  a  seeker  after  the  lost,  and 
she  must  not  abandon  that  Divine  and  ceaseless 
quest.  But  what  she  has  done  for  individuals  here 
and  there,  she  must  now  undertake  to  do  for  so- 
ciety as  a  whole,  if  the  uprising  and  inevitable 
world-democracy  is  to  fulfil  its  hopes  and  do  its 
work. 

When  Edward  Irving  began  his  ministry  In 
Glasgow,  well-nigh  ninety  years  ago,  he  resolved 


90   THE  JUDGMENT  OF  THE  CHUECH 

to  "  demonstrate  a  higher  style  of  Christianity — 
something  more  magnanimous,  more  heroical,  than 
this  age  is  accustomed  to."  Many  things  our  dis- 
tracted age  needs,  but  nothing  does  it  need  so  much 
as  a  higher,  more  heroic  style  of  Christianity. 
Let  us  give  ourselves  to  it,  nor  think  it  too  great 
an  achievement  for  the  Church  of  to-day,  for  such 
must  be  the  will  of  Him  who  was  dead  and  is  alive 
for  evermore,  who  loved  the  Church  and  gave  Him- 
self for  it. 

He  that  hath  an  ear,  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit 
saith  to  the  Churches. 


VII 
THE  WORD  OF  GOD 

*'  The  word  of  God  is  living  and  active." — Heb.  4: 12. 

FROM  end  to  end  the  Bible  is  a  unity  in  faith, 
in  spirit,  and  in  purpose,  yet  it  nowhere 
speaks  of  itself  as  a  whole.  It  is  too  wise, 
too  modest,  too  intent  on  the  great  story  it  has  to 
tell.  Nor  does  it  ever  call  itself  the  Word  of  God. 
Indeed,  it  is  a  striking  fact  that  in  the  Bible  the 
name  "  Word  of  God  "  is  never  once  applied  to 
anything  written.  No,  the  Word  of  God  is  living, 
active,  creative,  a  seed,  a  fire,  a  light,  a  power  at 
once  august  and  intimate,  and  no  book,  nor  all  the 
books  in  the  world,  can  contain  it.  Every  land, 
every  people,  every  age  hears  it,  each  in  its  own 
tongue,  and  because  there  are  always  listening  ears, 
however  few, 

One  accent  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
The  heedless  world  has  never  lost. 

The  Word  of  God  is  eternal.  It  spoke  to  man 
before  he  had  learned  to  write;  it  will  still  speak 
when  all  books  are  faded  and  forgotten.     Heaven 

91 


92  THE  WOED  OF  GOD 

and  earth  may  pass  away,  but  the  Word  of  God  will 
not  fail  of  fulfilment.  **A11  flesh  is  grass,  and  all 
the  glory  of  man  as  the  flower  of  the  grass.  The 
grass  withereth  and  the  flower  thereof  falleth 
away,  but  the  Word  of  God  endureth  forever." 
What  God  has  to  say  to  man,  and  what  at  last  He 
actually  did  say,  is  something  too  great,  too  won- 
derful for  any  human  words,  even  the  most  elo- 
quent or  searching  or  patient,  ever  to  tell.  It  is  a 
Living  Word,  not  known  by  pronunciation,  but 
only  by  incarnation.  As  it  has  been  written: 
"  God,  who  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers  manners 
spake  in  times  past  unto  our  fathers  by  the 
prophets,  hath  in  these  last  days  spoken  unto  us  by 
His  Son.  The  Word  was  made  flesh,  and  dwelt 
among  us,  and  we  beheld  His  glory,  full  of  grace 
and  truth." 

What,  then,  is  the  Bible  ?  It  is  a  record  of  the 
God-revealing  experiences  of  the  poets,  prophets, 
and  apostles  of  a  noble  people,  as  they  learned  of 
God  through  long,  tragic  ages  and  wrote  what  they 
had  learned.  Not  in  writings  primarily,  but  in 
living  history,  in  actual  life,  God  shows  Himself 
to  men.  From  the  Bible  we  learn  not  only  the 
truth  made  known  in  ancient  time,  but  the  method 
by  which  it  was  revealed,  and  the  one  is  hardly  less 
vital  than  the  other.  God  spoke  to  the  people 
which  were  of  old,  as  He  speaks  to-day,  if  we  have 


THE  WOED  OF  GOD  93 

ears  to  hear,  through  Hfe,  through  facts  and  events 
and  actions  and  persons,  through  history  and  re- 
flection, and  the  Bible  tells  us  of  the  life  and  action, 
both  personal  and  national,  in  which  He  was  re- 
vealed. Thus  God  speaks  in  the  Bible,  but  He 
does  not  write.  Then,  as  now,  it  was  revelation 
through  experience,  and  the  value  of  the  Bible  is 
not  only  that  it  tells  us  what  men  learned  of  God 
in  the  long  ago,  but  that  it  helps  us  to  read  His 
newer  Word  as  it  is  written  in  the  events  and 
actions  of  to-day. 

Here  lies  the  answer  to  those  two  profound 
questions:  Does  God  speak  to  man  to-day?  H 
so,  how?  Primarily,  men  are  inspired,  not  writ- 
ings. Wherever  a  man,  by  any  means  soever, 
learns  what  reality  is,  and  what  are  the  laws  of  the 
world,  he  is  reading  the  Word  of  God.  Often  he 
can  decipher  only  here  a  line  and  there  a  stanza, 
but  God  is  speaking  to  him.  Thus,  when  Job 
passed  through  his  bitter  trial  he  learned  a  new 
Word  of  God  about  suffering,  namely,  that  suffer- 
ing is  not  always  punishment;  and  he  was  able  to 
utter  it  in  a  drama  that  has  in  it  the  wide  spaces  of 
the  desert,  its  lucid  skies,  its  loneliness  and  storm. 
When  David  was  an  outcast,  a  fugitive  hunted  and 
pursued,  finding  shelter  In  caves,  he  learned  that 
God  lives  in  the  heart  more  than  In  palaces,  and 
he  told  in  song  what  he  had  learned  in  sorrow. 


94  THE  WOED  OF  GOD 

When  the  king  died  and  the  nation  was  shaken,  and 
men  felt  the  insecurity  of  all  things  mortal,  it  was 
given  Isaiah  to  look  through  that  event  and  see 
One  who  never  dies  and  a  throne  that  cannot  be 
shaken;  and  he  made  record  of  his  vision.  When 
Jeremiah  was  left  to  stand  alone  in  defiance  of  the 
people  whom  he  loved — one  of  the  grandest  and 
most  tragic  figures  in  history — he  made  a  new  ad- 
venture in  prayer,  and  rose  above  book-religion  to 
life-religion;  as,  later,  the  Prophet  of  the  Exile  dis- 
covered, in  the  dark  night  of  his  sorrow,  the  Suf- 
fering Servant  of  God  walking  the  dreamy  ways 
of  prophecy. 

After  this  manner  the  Bible  was  written,  slowly 
and  painfully ;  not  so  much  written  as  wrought  out 
amid  the  struggle  and  sorrow  of  human  life,  each 
page  lived  before  it  was  written — each  line,  as 
Whitman  said,  wet  with  human  tears.  Hence  the 
power  that  is  in  it  which  passes  like  fire  from  heart 
to  heart  adown  the  ages ;  and  hence,  also,  the  close 
connection  between  this  Book  and  the  living  and 
abiding  word  of  God.  No  other  book  has  such 
power  to  comfort  and  command.  A  famous 
Master  of  Balllol  has  told  us  that  we  should  "  read 
the  Bible  as  we  read  any  other  book  " ;  and  that 
is  the  surest  way  to  learn  that  it  is  unlike  any  other 
book.  The  Bible  Is  literature,  If  by  that  we  mean 
'*  the  lasting  expression  In  words  of  the  meaning 


THE  WOED  OF  GOD  95 

of  life  " ;  but  it  is  something  more.  It  is  not  art, 
it  is  life.  Men  feel  this  to  be  so.  Let  a  man  try 
to  read  the  Bible  as  literature  only,  and  he  will 
find  that  in  the  drama  which  it  unfolds  there  can 
be  no  spectators,  no  lookers  on.  Everybody — the 
reader  included — is  drawn  into  the  action;  each 
must  take  sides  or  make  "  the  great  refusal." 
Something  reaches  out  from  its  pages  and  pulls  us 
into  the  play  of  its  realities.  It  is  not  a  fiction  of 
what  life  might  have  been;  it  is  life  itself  speak- 
ing to  us. 

Nor  is  this  to  disparage  literature  and  its  serv- 
ice to  the  human  spirit.  Far  from  it.  How  we 
love  to  wander  in  its  Chamber  of  Imagery,  amid 
forms  lovely  and  haunting,  where  Homer  sings, 
and  Plato  speaks,  and  Hamlet  dies;  and  there  are 
lines  in  the  great  poets — often,  even,  in  lesser 
poets — which  open,  in  the  light  of  a  flash,  a  vista 
half  on  earth  and  half  in  heaven.  Literature  is 
beautiful  and  benign,  free,  ideal,  and  richly  re- 
warding. But  the  Bible  is  more  compelling  than 
persuasive.  It  does  not  entertain;  it  commands. 
It  is  too  serious,  too  earnest,  too  honest  to  care  for 
art  for  the  sake  of  art.  Its  art  is  artless,  its  pur- 
pose being  to  lay  hold  of  the  heart,  the  conscience, 
the  will,  bringing  to  the  service  and  solace  of  man 
the  truth  made  known  in  the  agony  and  bloody 
sweat  of  mortal  life.     When  a  man  tries  to  read 


96  THE  WOED  OF  GOD 

the  Fifty-first  Psalm  as  he  reads  any  other  poem, 
he  finds  himself  face  to  face  with  God  and  the  soul, 
humbled,  subdued,  rebuked,  exalted.  He  will  not 
doubt  its  inspiration ;  the  sense  that  he  is  one  with 
that  long-dead  singer  will  melt  his  heart,  and  he 
will  say,  if  he  be  wise,  "  This  thing  is  of  God." 
Such  is  the  power  of  the  Bible,  as  unique  as  it  is 
searching,  and  if  we  let  it  have  its  way  with  us, 
yielding  our  souls  to  its  passion  for  righteousness, 
and  its  sense  of  the  Eternal  Life  in  Time,  it  will 
lead  us  infallibly  in  the  way  everlasting. 

Yes,  infallibly.  Argument  is  not  needed;  the 
fact  proves  it.  The  Bible  grew  up  out  of  a  re- 
ligious life,  rich,  profound,  revealing,  and  if  rightly 
used  and  obeyed  it  will  reproduce  in  us,  infallibly, 
the  kind  of  life  which  produced  it. 

No  other  kind  of  infallibility  is  needed.  Strong 
men,  serious  men  who  wish  to  fight  the  battle  of 
character  through  to  something  like  decency,  ask 
for  no  surer  token.  As  the  Bible  is  a  Book  of 
Life,  so  its  verity  and  value  are  to  be  known  only 
in  the  midst  of  life.  Experience  is  the  final  test. 
"  The  word  is  very  nigh  unto  thee,  in  thy  mouth, 
and  in  thy  heart,  that  thou  mayest  do  it.'*  Texts 
often  tell  us  their  meaning  if  we  turn  them  over, 
and  if  we  invert  this  text  we  learn  that  the  word 
that  is  nigh  unto  us,  in  our  mouth,  and  in  our 
hearts,  is  the  Word  of  God.     Evermore  the  chal- 


THE  WOED  OP  GOD  97 

lenge  of  Jesus  is,  If  we  do,  we  shall  know.  The 
writers  of  the  Bible  did  not  argue;  they  obeyed. 
They  lived  before  they  wrote.  They  were  men  of 
like  passions  as  ourselves,  of  like  faiths  and  fears 
and  failings.  They  wrestled  with  reality;  they 
were  sorely  tried,  and  their  cries  of  anguish  echo 
to  this  day — deathless  trumpets  from  the  oblivion 
of  olden  time.  In  weakness  they  were  made 
strong ;  in  darkness  they  saw  "  the  brightness  on 
the  other  side  of  life  " ;  in  death  they  were  not  dis- 
mayed. They  show  us  in  actual  life,  in  outward 
experience  and  inward  realization,  how  the  victory 
is  won — how  truth  is  learned  by  living. 

Here,  in  this  wise  and  faithful  Book,  is  the  very 
stuff  of  life  itself;  the  human  realities  out  of 
which,  not  as  a  theory,  but  as  a  fact,  faith  in  God 
grows.  How  many  they  are !  The  two  characters 
of  this  Book  are  the  Sky  and  the  Dirt.  Its  story 
is  the  romance  of  God  and  man  and  their  eternal 
life  together.  Sunrise,  sunset,  summer,  autumn, 
winter,  calm,  storm,  birth,  marriage,  love,  laughter, 
pain,  sorrow,  sin,  repentance,  the  broken  heart  and 
the  open  grave — these  old,  familiar,  human  things 
live  in  the  Bible  against  a  background  of  Eternity. 
Those  men  of  old  needed  guidance  as  they  faced 
the  mystery  of  life  and  realized  how  many  ques- 
tions remain  unanswered.  They  needed  comfort 
in  sorrow,  courage  in  disappointment,  hope  in  fail- 


98  THE  WOED  OP  GOD 

ure.  They  needed  forgiveness  for  sin,  inspiration 
in  monotony,  and  companionship  as  one  by  one 
their  friends  dropped  away,  leaving  them  to  walk 
alone.  Above  all  they  needed  light  as  they  looked 
out  upon  the  world  of  their  day,  so  tangled  and  so 
troubled,  and  were  tempted  to  despair  of  finding  a 
way  out.  They  found  what  they  needed  in  God, 
and  in  God  alone,  and  set  down  in  simple  words 
what  they  learned  of  His  will,  His  care.  His  plans 
for  them  and  their  duty  to  Him.  God  was  made 
known  to  them  in  heroic  experience,  in  sins  for- 
given, in  minds  made  clear  of  earthly  mists,  in 
hearts  healed  of  the  old  hurt  of  life — that  dumb 
and  nameless  pain  that  throbs  at  the  heart  of  our 
being  as  we  march  or  creep  or  crowd  through  the 
welter  of  war,  poverty,  disease,  and  death. 

What  about  our  own  day?  This,  at  least:  God 
is  not  the  great  I  was,  but  the  great  I  am,  and  His 
Word  speaks  to  us  to-day,  as  of  old,  through  the 
facts,  the  events,  the  actions,  the  persons  of  our 
time,  in  actual  life  as  it  unfolds,  in  history  as  it  is 
wrought  out  in  blood  and  fire  and  tears.  "  This 
day  hath  this  Scripture  been  fulfilled  in  your  ears,** 
not  as  some  one  event  was  foreshadowed  in  the 
imagery  of  Ezekiel  or  the  visions  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse, but  as  the  same  laws  of  righteousness  which 
ruled  in  the  past  fulfil  themselves  anew  in  the  out- 
working of  events — in  the  overthrow  of  injustice, 


THE  WOED  OF  GOD  €9 

in  the  triumph  of  right  over  might,  in  the  deUver- 
ance  of  the  poor  and  the  afflicted.  "  God  is  not 
dumb  that  He  should  speak  no  more."  He  who 
awakened  the  soul  of  Israel  and  lifted  Isaiah  to  a 
purer  vision  through  the  march  of  the  Assyrian 
army  must  have  some  word  to  speak  to  us  iii  the 
upheavals  and  overturnings  of  our  day.  Mani- 
festly, it  is  a  word  not  only  for  our  individual  lead- 
ing, but  for  humanity  in  its  collective  life,  if  we 
have  the  insight  to  read  and  interpret  it.  But  who 
is  sufficient  for  these  things? 

How  can  we  read  aright  the  strange,  troubled, 
tragic  history  of  our  own  day?  Here  the  Bible  is 
our  surest  guide,  prophet,  and  friend,  if  we  would 
trace  the  ways  of  God  in  "long-lived  storm  of 
great  events,"  since  His  newer  Word  must  con- 
firm the  old,  fulfilling  itself  in  the  processes  of  the 
years.  The  mighty  prophets  were  the  first  to  see 
that  events  do  not  run  wild,  but  are  held  and  guided 
by  an  unseen  Hand.  Not  only  one  nation,  but  as 
their  vision  broadened,  all  nations,  all  lands,  all 
ages,  were  seen  to  be  subject  to  Divine  control ;  all 
events  of  history — the  march  of  armies,  the  fate 
of  dynasties,  the  fall  of  cities — are  at  the  bidding 
of  His  will.  Assyria  was  a  razor  to  cut  away 
things  outgrown.  Egypt  was  a  pruning  hook. 
There  is  no  fact  to-day,  however  appalling,  that 
those  watchers  of  the  ways  of  God  did  not  face. 


100  THE  WOED  OF  GOD 

Then,  as  now,  the  hills  trembled  and  the  uproar  of 
the  people  was  like  the  roaring  of  the  sea,  but  they 
saw  God  in  all,  through  all,  over  all.  They  dis- 
cerned, now  dimly,  now  clearly,  the  moral,  social, 
and  spiritual  purpose  of  God  in  history,  and  it  is 
thus  that  their  Book  of  Vision  is  a  light  to  our  feet 
in  this  far-off  age. 

For  what  was  true  in  the  long  ago  is  true  to-day. 
God  was  made  known  to  the  prophets  and  apostles, 
as  He  is  revealed  to-day,  in  living  history  as  "  a 
creative  Personality,  a  dauntless  Saviour,  the 
Builder  of  a  brotherly  social  order,  the  universal 
and  eternal  good-will."  To-day  we  must  think  out 
anew  our  faith  in  God,  not  only  as  that  faith  is  re- 
lated to  our  individual  struggle  for  the  good,  but 
as  it  involves  a  new  sense  of  the  relation  of  nations 
to  one  another,  and  their  unity  of  interest  and 
obligation.  In  a  terrible  text-book  we  have  been 
reading  the  Word  of  God  that  He  has  "  made  of 
one  blood  every  nation  of  men,"  and  that  there  is 
no  security,  no  peace,  until  we  learn  to  do  justly,  to 
love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  before  Him. 
Surely,  if  God  is  revealed  by  the  action  of  events, 
we  shall  miss  His  living  word  if  the  terrible  events 
of  the  last  four  years  do  not  evoke  in  us  a  larger 
thought  and  a  kindlier  feeling  toward  all  races  of 
men,  thereby  interpreting  the  solidarity  of  hu- 
manity in  which  all  peoples  are  members  one  of 


THE  WOED  OF  GOD  101 

another.  It  must  be  the  clear  will  of  God  by  these, 
His  acts,  to  lead  us  toward  the  fulfilment  of  that 
vision,  so  often  foretold  in  the  Bible,  when 

Nation  with  nation,  land  with  land, 
Unarmed  shall  live  as  comrades  free ; 

In  every  heart  and  brain  shall  throb 
The  pulse  of  one  fraternity. 

Again,  it  must  be  that  a  revealing  Word  of  God 
is  speaking  to  our  humanity,  if  it  will  but  listen,  in 
its  suffering,  its  misery,  and  in  the  voice  of  its 
weeping  for  the  dead.  Here,  too,  the  tender  heart 
of  the  Bible  is  true  to  our  deep  need,  and  its  leaves 
are  for  our  healing.  After  all,  our  woe  is  new 
only  in  its  magnitude,  not  in  its  quality.  Hunger 
is  hunger,  pain  pain,  death  death  the  world  over; 
in  Judea  as  in  England.  The  seers  of  old  saw  in 
suffering  not  a  sign  of  the  forgetfulness  of  God, 
still  less  a  proof  of  His  weakness  or  of  His  in- 
difference, but  the  Cloud  of  His  Presence.  Nay, 
more:  the  supreme  surprise  of  the  Bible,  that  which 
filled  its  writers  with  a  wonder  beyond  words,  is 
that  God  suffers  too,  suffers  with  man  and  for  man. 
Here  we  enter  where  words  cannot  follow.  Even 
the  stately,  awe-struck  words  of  the  Prophet  of 
the  Exile,  for  ever  memorable  in  their  beauty,  do 
not  tell  half  the  depth  and  richness  of  this  truth. 
Only  a  Living  Word  made  flesh,  pure,  heroic, 


102  THE  WORD  OF  GOD 

lovely,  tried  and  found  true,  suffering  but  victori- 
ous, walking  by  our  side,  laying  His  hand  upon  our 
sickness,  cooling  our  fever,  cleansing,  teaching,  en- 
folding, upholding,  can  tell  the  whole  truth. 

Yes,  the  poet  was  right;  God  may  have  other 
words  for  other  worlds,  but  His  supreme  Word  for 
this  world,  yesterday,  to-day,  forever,  is  Christ! 
He  is  the  central  Figure  of  the  Bible,  its  crown, 
its  glory,  its  glow-point  of  vision  and  revelation. 
Take  Him  away  and  its  light  grows  dim.  He  ful- 
filled the  whole  Book,  its  history,  its  poetry,  its 
prophecy,  its  ritual,  even  as  He  fulfils  our  deepest 
yearning  and  our  highest  hope.  Ages  have  come 
and  gone,  but  He  abides — abides  because  He  is  real, 
because  He  is  unexhausted,  because  He  is  needed. 
Little  is  left  to-day  save  Christ — Himself  smitten 
and  afBicted,  bruised  of  God  and  wounded — but 
He  is  all  we  need.  If  we  hear  Him,  follow  Him, 
obey  Him,  we  shall  walk  together  into  a  new 
world  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness  and  love — 
He  is  the  Word  of  God. 


VIII 
THE  HOUSE  OF  THE  SEER' 

"  Tell  me,  I  pray  thee,  where  the  seer's  house  is.*' 

— I  Sam.  9:  18. 

"  Where  there  is  no  vision,  the  people  perish." 

— Prov.  29 :  18. 

THOSE  who  have  vision  can  picture  the 
house  of  the  seer,  standing  foursquare  on 
the  hillside,  with  its  flat  roof  and  its  wide- 
ranging  outlook.  There  the  prophet  welcomed  the 
coming  of  morning  or  watched  the  fading  glow  of 
the  sun  as  it  went  down  in  the  great  sea,  while  the 
stars  gathered  like  an  army  in  the  infinite  field  of 
night.  Stern  he  may  have  been,  rebuking  men  for 
their  sin  and  unbelief,  but  he  was  a  man  of  pro- 
found sympathy,  and  his  house  was  a  place  of 
healing.  Reverence,  reality,  and  love  were  there, 
a  sense  of  the  mystery  and  worth  of  life,  a  vision 
of  God  moving  in  the  courses  of  human  history, 

*  Preached  at  the  Recognition  of  Rev.  A.  A.  Lee,  St. 
James  Church,  Newcastle-upon-Tyne,  January  12,  1919; 
also  in  City  Temple,  the  service  attended  by  a  delegation 
of  theological  students. 

103 


104  THE  HOUSE  OF  THE  SEEE 

and  an  unlimited  hope.  There  thought  toiled  in 
the  service  of  the  spirit,  and  faith  made  trial  of  the 
unknown  ways  of  the  Eternal. 

Thither,  to  the  house  of  the  seer,  all  sorts  of 
people,  in  all  sorts  of  difficulty,  made  their  way. 
The  mother  anxious  about  her  child,  the  patriot  in 
despair  over  the  faction  and  feud  of  the  land;  the 
old  in  their  love  of  an  order  that  seemed  doomed, 
the  young  with  their  eager  yearning  for  a  better 
day ;  those  baffled  in  the  trivial  quest  of  lost  asses, 
and  those  who  were  in  quest  of  God — all  wended 
their  way  to  the  house  of  the  seer.  It  was  a  centre 
of  love,  of  light,  of  consolation  for  a  multitude  of 
weary  people  who  sought  its  peace.  There  were 
searching  of  heart  and  high  resolve,  as  the 
awful  issues  of  human  life  were  tried  by  ideal 
values,  without  which  nothing  has  any  value.  The 
young  sought  its  privilege  in  the  morning ;  the  old 
craved  its  forward  look  at  eventide.  Thither  we 
must  go  betimes,  in  humility  and  awe,  to  renew  our 
sense  of  "  a  credible  God,"  and  give  new  vows  of 
loyalty  to  His  mighty  will. 

Always,  the  house  of  the  seer  is  the  chief  orna- 
ment and  distinction  in  any  city.  When  we  think 
of  Florence,  we  think  of  its  heroic  and  mighty  seer, 
whose  apocalyptic  visions  made  men  tremble,  and 
whose  voice  of  pity  was  as  tender,  as  haunting,  as  a 
divine  caress.     When  we  think  of  Strasburg,  we 


THE  HOUSE  OF  THE  SEEE  105 

see  once  more  the  shining  figure  of  Tauler,  and  his 
band  of  the  "  friends  of  God/'  as  he  stood  in  the 
midst  of  the  Black  Death,  when  others  had  fled, 
nursing  the  sick,  comforting  the  sorrowing,  bury- 
ing the  dead — the  house  of  the  seer  the  one  place 
of  light  in  a  city  shrouded  as  by  a  pall.  When  we 
think  of  Birmingham,  with  its  grey  smoke-cloud  of 
puffing  industrialism,  the  names  of  Dale  and  New- 
man come  to  mind.  They  were  utterly  unlike,  and 
as  far  apart  as  men  could  well  be  intellectually, 
yet  each  in  his  own  way  added  lustre  to  the  fame 
of  his  city.  Better  is  it,  as  Beecher  said  of  David 
Swing,  who  came  to  the  new,  up-rising  metropolis 
of  Chicago,  proclaiming  a  Christianity  that  was 
also  a  civilization — better  is  it  than  shops  and  ships, 
or  a  new  way  of  building  houses,  that  a  city  should 
have  given  to  it  an  authentic  teacher  of  wise  and 
good  and  beautiful  truth. 

For,  "  where  there  is  no  vision,  the  people 
perish " — literally  they  cast  off  restraint,  defy 
moral  law,  and  become  a  mob.  Never  was  there 
such  need  of  clear  thinking  in  the  light  of  the  eter- 
nal moralities  as  there  is  to-day,  when  anarchy  is 
running  wild,  and  running  red,  over  so  much  of  the 
earth.  By  vision  is  meant  a  sense  of  the  ideal,  of 
the  spiritual,  of  the  eternal,  and  history  has  shown 
over  and  over  again  that  when  that  vision  fades, 
the  people  fall  into  licentiousness  and  greed,  giving 


106  THE  HOUSE  OF  THE  SEEE 

reins  to  the  wild  horses  that  ride  to  hell.  When 
the  Bible  would  account  for  those  periods  of  dismal 
moral  decay,  when  lust  ran  riot  and  God  seemed 
dead,  it  says,  *'  there  was  no  open  vision  " ;  and 
again,  ''  there  was  no  more  any  prophet." 
Truly,  if  the  light  of  the  moral  ideal  in  man  be 
darkness,  how  deep  and  awful  is  that  darkness! 
Lord  Morley,  who  assuredly  knows  the  facts,  tells 
us  plainly  that  the  revolt  in  the  days  of  Voltaire 
was  a  revolt  against  chastity,  a  loosening  of  moral 
sanctions,  a  lowering  of  the  moral  ideal.  As 
Isaiah  said  long  ago,  **  They  who  err  in  vision 
stumble  in  judgment,"  and  fall  into  the  mire  of  the 
pit,  blind  leaders  of  the  blind. 

What  is  this  strange  power  of  vision  without 
which  we  lose  our  way  and  fight  dim  battles  in  a 
doubtful  land?  Jesus  used  two  words  when  He 
said,  "A  little  while  and  ye  behold  me  no  more; 
again,  a  little  while,  and  ye  shall  see  me."  The 
first,  rendered  behold,  is  the  word  from  which  we 
derive  the  word  theorem,  and  refers  to  the  demon- 
stration of  physical  sight;  the  second,  translated 
see,  refers  to  the  sight  of  the  soul,  and  is  often 
used  by  Sophocles  to  describe  the  finer  perceptions 
of  the  mind.  No  fact  about  man  Is  better  attested 
than  the  presence  in  him  of  the  power  of  spiritual 
Insight.  Every  man  has  It  In  some  measure,  but 
there  are  souls  so  fine,  so  delicate  and  sure  of 


THE  HOUSE  OF  THE  SEER  107 

sight,  that  they  seem  to  have  been  born  very  near 
the  veil  which  swings  between  the  world  of  sense 
and  the  world  unseen.  They  "  see  the  invisible," 
to  use  the  Bible  paradox,  and  it  is  therefore  that 
we  call  them  seers — ^prophetic  souls,  divinely  il- 
lumined, whose  insight  lights  the  way  of  humanity. 
Hence  the  wise  hymn,  with  its  deep  sense  of  abid- 
ing need,  and  its  prayer  that  the  succession  of 
prophetic  light  and  power  be  not  broken: 

God  of  the  prophets ! 

Bless  the  prophets'  sons ; 
Elijah's  mantle 
O'er  Elisha  cast. 

Such  is  the  necessity,  and  such  the  function  of 
the  seer  in  the  life  of  humanity.  First  of  all,  he 
stands  as  an  unweariable  witness  to  the  reality  and 
authority  of  the  Ideal  and  the  immutable  necessity 
of  loyalty  to  it.  Despite  the  normal  drift  toward 
externalism  and  materialism,  he  bears  testimony  in 
behalf  of  the  life  of  the  spirit,  reminding  men  that 
their  happiness  depends  not  upon  things  but  upon 
morals.  He  at  least  is  not  deceived  by  delusions, 
but  seeks  to  recall  his  fellows  from  the  glitter  and 
semblance  of  life  to  homage  for  truth,  beauty, 
righteousness,  and  character,  from  the  passing 
show  to  the  eternal  realities  which,  because  they 
are  eternal  and  real,  are  the  only  things  that  really: 


108  THE  HOUSE  OP  THE  SEER 

matter.  He  divines  the  moral  meaning  of  events, 
as  Dean  Church  did  in  his  letter  in  1870,  to  his 
friend  Asa  Gray,  the  Harvard  botanist,  at  a  time 
when  even  Gladstone  was  rejoicing  in  a  grand  and 
united  Vaterland.  "  The  means  which  have  been 
deliberately  chosen  to  bring  it  about  are  simply 
hateful " ;  and  he  added,  "  the  law  of  retributive 
justice  is  for  Germany  as  well  as  for  France,  and 
for  the  one,  as  for  the  other,  it  will  wait  to  claim 
its  due."  There  spoke  an  acute  moral  perception, 
akin  to  that  of  Amos  in  his  judgment  of  the  na- 
tions of  his  day,  and  to  that  of  Isaiah  who  opposed 
an  alliance  with  Egypt  as  a  covenant  with  death. 

Never  was  this  power  of  vision  needed  as  it  is 
to-day,  and  if  it  is  not  vouchsafed  we  are  doomed 
to  grope  and  stumble, 

For  each  age  is  a  dream  that  is  dying. 
Or  one  that  is  coming  to  birth. 

Thus  to  the  power  of  divining  the  trend  of  facts, 
forces,  events,  ideas,  the  seer  must  add  the  insight, 
the  art,  the  "  magic  of  the  necessary  word,"  to 
visualize  the  thing  that  ought  to  be  and  is  to  be. 
In  a  note  to  the  chorus  of  his  "  Hellas,"  Shelley 
wrote:  "  Prophecies  of  wars,  and  rumours  of  wars, 
and  so  forth,  may  safely  be  made  by  poet  or 
prophet  in  any  age,  but  to  anticipate,  however 
darkly,  a  period  of  regeneration  and  happiness  is 


THE  HOUSE  OF  THE  SEER  109 

a  more  hazardous  exercise  of  the  faculty  which 
bards  possess  or  feign."  None  the  less,  it  is  our 
duty  to  do  so,  doubly  so  in  a  day  of  deep  wistful- 
ness  when  men  are  watching  for  a  light  to 
brighten  the  skyline  of  their  hope.  If  we  believe 
in  the  possibility  and  necessity  of  a  world  organ- 
ized on  a  basis  of  justice  and  good-will,  we  must 
body  it  forth,  making  the  invisible  vivid  and  com- 
pelling to  the  eyes  of  men.     As  we  may  read: 

"  Our  task  is  to  fill  the  minds  of  men  with  a  new 
Pilgrim's  Progress  out  of  a  condemned  social  order 
into  one  after  the  heart  of  Christ,  and  to  paint  the 
new  celestial  city  as  concretely  and  with  far  minuter 
ethical  detail  than  Bunyan  sketched  that  of  which  his 
pilgrims  had  sight  from  the  Delectable  Mountains. 
.  .  .  Nothing  is  comparable  in  haunting  power  to 
the  ideal  made  concrete  in  vision.  Men  must  see 
what  may  be  before  they  will  resolve  that  it  is  so  good 
that  they  will  venture  their  all  to  make  it  come  true. 
In  every  section  of  life  upon  which  we  look — a  heart's 
sorrow,  a  nation's  ambition,  a  child's  hopefulness — we 
must  see  what  is  not  there,  but  may  be  there  when  the 
waiting  God  is  allowed  to  come  in  and  reign.  This 
is  a  time  for  believing  dreaming  in  the  presence  of 
God  in  Christ.  While  we  muse,  the  fire  kindles,  and 
we  speak  and  make  men  fellow-conscripts  of  the 
vision  splendid."  * 

There  is  no  need  to  say  that  the  pulpit  demands 
intellectual  power,  the  more  so  in  an  era  of  the- 
*"In  a  Day  of  Social  Rebuilding,"  by  H.  S.  Coffin. 


110  THE  HOUSE  OF  THE  SEEE 

ological  break-up  and  social  readjustment.  Infor- 
mation must  serve  inspiration.  Take  intellect  out 
of  religion,  give  it  over  to  the  care  of  crude,  half- 
educated,  narrov^  men,  out  of  sympathy  with  their 
times,  and  it  v^ill  be  reduced  to  superstition.  From 
St.  Paul  to  Jonathan  Edwards  our  Christianity  has 
won  its  way  through  an  apostolic  succession  of 
great  intellects  in  the  pulpit.  But  more  important 
than  intellect,  even,  is  that  tender,  sympathetic 
faculty  to  be  found  in  the  soul  of  every  true  min- 
ister; a  something  akin  to  what  we  feel  in  the 
poems  of  Burns — that  faculty  which  evokes  the 
colours  in  grey  human  lives,  as  the  sunlight  brings 
out  the  golden  threads  in  a  little  girl's  brown  hair. 
This  loving  genius  has  been  the  central  and  in- 
viting charm  of  every  historic  pulpit.  In  the 
voices  of  the  great  preachers  one  hears  not  only 
"  the  still  sad  music  of  humanity,"  its  shout  of  joy 
and  its  sob  of  grief,  but  the  blended  notes  of  the 
passion  of  the  lover,  the  yearning  of  the  father, 
and  the  wooing  tones  of  a  mother.  To  be  of  any 
service  a  preacher  maist  love  folk,  just  folk,  all  sorts 
of  folk,  with  all  their  ills  and  evils,  their  petty  ways 
of  thinking  and  their  ugly  ways  of  doing,  because 
he  knows  the  hidden,  unguessed,  unbelievable  good- 
ness that  is  in  them.  He  must  love  them  for  what 
they  are,  for  what  they  are  to  be — love  them  as  his 
Master  loved  them — for  the  story  of  Divine  pity 


THE  HOUSE  OF  THE  SEEE  111 

was  never  yet  believed  from  lips  that  were  not  felt 
to  be  moved  by  human  pity. 

My  brother,  you  and  I  are  dwarfed  by  such  an 
ideal  of  our  office,  as  King  David  would  be  dwarfed 
should  he  stand  beside  the  statue  of  him  by  Angelo ; 
but  we  dare  not  lower  it  an  iota.  Since  the  dawn 
of  our  Christian  era  there  has  never  been  such  an 
opportunity  as  there  is  now  for  a  broad,  virile, 
seer-like  ministry,  aglow  with  faith  in  God  and  love 
of  man.  Between  a  petrified  dogmatism  and  an 
erratic  radicalism,  there  is  room  for  a  pulpit  wise 
with  the  wisdom  of  insight,  free  as  the  air,  and  in 
many  tones  and  keys  eloquent  for  God  and  the 
higher  human  life.  If  we  are  to  speak  to  our 
age — speak  to  its  "  condition/'  as  George  Fox 
would  say — we  must  know  it,  love  it,  live  in 
it,  feel  the  ache  of  its  aspiration,  and  think  in 
the  drift  of  its  deeper  conclusions,  and  not  give 
way  to  denunciatory  scolding  of  it.  The  high 
themes  are  here;  the  human  heart  is  here;  the 
holy  day  is  here.  To-day,  as  in  all  the  past, 
sin  stains,  sorrow  wounds,  and  death  smites  with 
its  tender,  terrible  stroke,  and  men  yearn,  as  of 
yore,  for  that  spell,  wrought  by  insight  into  the 
soul,  and  the  evocation  of  the  religious  atmos- 
phere, as  old  as  the  world  and  as  mysterious  as  the 
wind  In  the  trees.  It  is  for  the  men  of  to-day, 
whose  hearts  God  has  touched,  to  hear  the  dim- 


112  THE  HOUSE  OF  THE  SEEE 

brooding  note  of  the  modern  soul  astray  in  its  own 
life,  and  speak  to  it  with  the  accent  of  power,  as  the 
men  of  other  days  spoke  for  God  to  their  vanished 
times. 

Looking  out  over  the  teeming  world  of  to-day, 
so  full  of  tumult,  so  torn  by  strife,  so  troubled, 
"  tell  me,  I  pray  thee,  where  is  the  house  of  the 
seer  ?  "  There  is  only  one  wise  thing  for  us  to  do 
to-day,  and  that  is  to  seek  the  place  of  vision ;  that 
alone  is  practical.  Surely  the  first  and  most  vital 
service  of  the  Church  to  our  tormented  age  is  that 
it  must  be  a  place,  a  fellowship,  where  "  the  sweet 
voice  sounds  and  the  vision  dwells."  The  office 
of  the  ministry  is  sacramental.  It  is  creative.  It 
belongs  to  a  man  by  virtue  not  only  of  his  tempera- 
ment, his  poetic  gift  and  his  social  passion,  but  also, 
and  much  more,  by  his  longing  to  be  a  saint  of  the 
Most  High.  The  test  of  any  ministry  is  not  its 
eloquence,  but  the  regenerative  note  that  is  in  it, 
conveying  the  living  word  of  God  to  living  men. 
When  the  Church  honours  the  pulpit — honours  in- 
sight, veracity,  sincerity,  and  pure  motives  in  the 
service  of  the  truth — the  pulpit  will  honour  it, 
bringing  authentic  leadership  to  its  service.  If 
your  minister  is  not  what  he  ought  to  be,  what  he 
wants  to  be,  gather  close  about  him  with  sympathy, 
prayer,  and  yearning  request,  and  make  an  at- 
mosphere in  which  his  spirit  can  bloom. 


THE  HOUSE  OF  THE  SEER  113 

The  minister  is  a  messenger  of  the  truth  of  God, 
and  a  servant  of  the  Church  for  that  sake — mean- 
ing by  the  Church  what  the  word  really  means,  the 
called  out,  the  company  of  those  of  every  sect  and 
name — those  also  of  no  sect  and  no  name — who 
are  born  of  the  Spirit  to  a  life  of  vision  and  service. 
Into  this  Church  Invisible  and  Immortal  the  min- 
ister must  lead  and  lift  his  people,  making 
Churches  the  Church  of  the  living  God,  obliterat- 
ing sects  in  behalf  of  the  fellowship  of  Humanity 
in  the  life  of  the  Father  of  Man.  For  this  service 
he  must  have  sympathy,  patience,  compassion,  be- 
nignity, and  above  all,  the  light  of  God  in  his  heart 
by  which  to  make  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  some- 
thing more  than  a  visionary  scene  suspended  in  the 
sky.  To  make  the  eternal  reality  real,  to  lift 
weary  human  souls  into  the  presence  of  God  and 
detain  them  there,  to  bring  healing  to  the  wounded 
and  hope  to  those  in  despair — ^that  is  great,  and 
there  is  nothing  that  is  greater. 

Glorious  is  the  history  of  our  Christian  pulpit; 
its  great  names  shine  like  stars  in  the  crown  of 
humanity.  It  has  been  a  light  in  darkness,  a  voice 
of  melting  pity  in  a  hard  world,  a  rebuker  of  in- 
justice, a  pleader  for  purity  and  honour,  a  witness 
for  the  living  Christ  who  is  the  hope  of  the  world. 
O  young  man,  seeking  a  vocation  worthy  of  your 
powers,  if  you  would  touch  the  souls  of  men,  if  you 


114  THE  HOUSE  OF  THE  SEER 

would  refine  and  exalt  their  faith,  if  you  would 
teach  sorrowful  eyes  to  see  majestic  meanings  in 
life;  if  you  have  hopes  such  as  these,  enter  the 
Christian  pulpit.  Enter  it  reverently  and  with  a 
pure  heart;  make  it  a  throne  of  beauty,  a  citadel 
of  integrity,  a  watch-tower  of  hope — and  may  you 
tell  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  in  a  voice  so  haunt- 
ing, so  healing,  that  it  will  echo  in  the  hearts  of 
men  after  you  have  fallen  asleep. 


IX 

NEHEMIAH  THE  LAYMAN 

"  The  God  of  heaven  will  prosper  us;  therefore  we 
His  servants  will  arise  and  build." — Neh.  2 :  20. 

NOWHERE  is  Joseph  Parker  more  de- 
lightfully suggestive  than  in  his  exposi- 
tion of  the  Memoirs  of  Nehemiah.  Nor 
is  it  to  be  wondered  at,  because  it  is  one  of  the  most 
fascinating  books  in  the  Bible,  not  so  much  a 
biography  as  a  diary,  and  rich  in  self -communings. 
Between  the  lines  one  can  almost  see  the  strong, 
earnest,  kindly  face  of  the  writer,  grown  old  and 
living  over  in  his  mind  the  days  of  his  prime,  tell- 
ing us  out  of  an  accumulation  of  memories,  with 
frequent  asides,  of  a  great  work  he  did  in  days 
agone.  Reading  his  diary,  we  come  to  love  the 
man  himself,  as  well  as  to  admire  his  work,  and 
if  his  name  is  associated  with  only  one  achievement 
we  agree  with  him  that  It  was  an  important  work. 
What  he  writes  is  not  a  dry  report,  but  the  human 
side  of  his  task,  how  he  was  led  to  undertake  it, 
the  (Jiificulties  he  met,  the  enemies  who  hindered 

"5 


116  NEHEMIAH  THE  LAYMAN 

him,  and  in  telling  us  these  things  he  gives  us  much 
of  himself. 

Perhaps  a  brief  sketch  of  the  background  of  his 
achievement  will  bring  both  the  man  and  his  work 
nearer  to  us.  Indeed,  we  have  much  to  learn  from 
Nehemiah  and  his  work  of  rebuilding  a  shattered 
commonwealth,  and  it  is  not  strange  that  his  period 
is  much  in  our  thought  to-day  as  a  parable,  if  noth- 
ing more,  of  the  task  that  confronts  us.  Not  all 
of  the  Jews  of  the  exile  returned  to  the  old  land, 
even  when  the  conquest  of  Babylon  by  Cyrus 
opened  the  way.  Many  were  prosperous  traders 
content  to  live  in  an  alien  land,  willing  to  lose  both 
their  race  and  their  faith  for  the  sake  of  ease  and 
gain.  But  the  spiritual  remnant,  often  referred  to 
by  the  prophets,  eagerly  embraced  the  opportunity 
of  returning,  and  their  exodus  passed  through  three 
distinct  stages,  each  directed  by  different  leaders,  at 
different  times.  The  first  expedition,  under  Zerub- 
babel  and  Joshua  the  priest,  was  religious,  as  be- 
fitted a  people  in  whose  life  religion  was  the  sov- 
ereign interest.  Its  object  was  not  to  rebuild  the 
city  or  the  State,  but  to  revive  and  re  found  the 
racial  faith — as  if  to  teach  us,  since  history  is 
philosophy  teaching  by  example,  that  if  we  are  to 
rebuild  a  shattered  world  its  foundation  must  be 
laid  on  religious  faith. 

They  accomplished  their  task  of  rebuilding  the 


NEHEMIAH  THE  LAYMAN  117 

Temple,  in  the  face  of  all  difficulties;  but  no  sooner 
was  it  finished  than  a  new  problem  arose — that  of 
religious  instruction.  Their  sacred  writings  were 
for  the  most  part  lost,  or  forgotten,  just  as  our  holy 
writings  are  neglected  by  the  multitude,  unread,  un- 
studied. Their  prophets  were  unpractical,  if  not 
apocalyptic  in  character,  as  we  see  from  the  visions 
of  Zechariah,  and  we  have  too  many  of  the  same 
kind — men  who  are  looking  for  a  new  Advent  in 
the  sky  instead  of  trying  to  set  up  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  on  earth.  Those  ancient  workers  were 
faced,  as  we  are  faced,  by  the  task  of  intensifying 
the  spiritual  life  of  the  people  under  the  most  drab 
and  undramatic  conditions.  To  meet  this  need  a 
second  expedition  set  out  from  Babylon  under  the 
leadership  of  Ezra,  the  scribe.  His  work  was  to 
put  the  written  Word  of  God  in  form  for  the  regu- 
lar instruction  of  the  people,  that  they  might  know 
the  spiritual  nature  of  their  faith,  its  covenants,  its 
obligations,  and  its  promises.  Such  a  task  lies  be- 
fore us,  waiting  for  our  wisdom,  our  patient  zeal, 
and  the  finest  skill  we  can  bring  to  it. 

Here,  too,  the  parallel  runs  close  to  our  situation. 
Ezra  met  two  great  difficulties,  one  of  which  was 
the  pernicious  activity  of  the  mongrel  race  of 
Samaritans  who  sought  to  pollute  both  the  blood 
and  the  faith  of  the  people.  And  that  difficulty, 
like  all  others,  was  made  more  difficult  by  the  di- 


118  NEHEMIAH  THE  LAYMAN 

vision  of  the  people  into  sects,  the  separatists  and 
the  secularists — later  known  as  the  Pharisees  and 
the  Sadducees.  These  two  sects,  developed  on  for- 
eign soil,  troubled  the  religious  life  of  the  Jews  for 
ages.  The  former  sought  to  preserve  their  racial 
purity  by  religious  exclusiveness,  and  the  latter 
desired  liberal  relations  with  other  nations.  They 
were  two  extremes,  on  the  one  side  obscurantism, 
on  the  other  latitudinarianism,  and  we  know  how, 
between  them,  they  hindered  the  ministry  of  Jesus 
and  accomplished  His  death.  How  like  our  own 
day  it  is,  when  sect  is  set  over  against  sect,  one  ex- 
treme against  another,  and  the  real  work  of  our 
religion  languishes.  Between  the  falsehood  of  ex- 
tremes the  middle  path  of  wise  and  sure  advance  is 
made  very  difficult.  What  was  needed  then,  as 
now,  were  able  leaders,  men  of  spiritual  motive 
and  practical  capacity,  who  knew  how  to  take  hold 
of  a  hard  job  and  see  it  through ;  and  that  was  what 
Nehemiah  did. 

Hence  the  third  expedition  from  Babylon,  led  by 
Nehemiah,  the  specific  object  of  which  was  to  re- 
build the  city  walls,  to  organize  and  tranquillize 
the  people,  and  so  adjust  internal  affairs  that  re- 
ligious teachers  could  carry  out  their  work.  Nehe- 
miah, be  it  remembered,  was  not  a  priest,  as  he 
takes  pains  to  tell  us,  much  less  a  theologian.  He 
made  no  such  pretensions.     He  was  a  layman  who 


NEHEMIAH  THE  LAYMAN  119 

knew  his  limitations,  but  he  also  knew  the  limita- 
tions of  the  priests  and  the  muddle  they  had  made 
of  things.  He  knew  that  his  work  was  secondary, 
and  a  means  to  an  end,  but  he  also  saw  that  with- 
out it  the  higher  work  could  not  be  done.  He 
knew  that  when  his  work  was  done  he  would  sink 
into  the  background,  and  he  was  content  to  have 
it  so.  None  the  less,  he  was  a  wise  and  faithful 
man,  truly  religious  and  practically  capable,  who 
saw  the  thing  that  needed  to  be  done,  gave  his 
whole  heart  and  hand  to  it,  and  got  it  done.  No 
wonder,  in  old  age,  he  looks  upon  the  work  of  those 
years  with  a  glow  of  satisfaction,  and  we  may  well 
envy  him  one  of  the  most  real  pleasures  of  life. 
He  enjoyed  his  work,  in  spite  of  its  difficulties,  and 
he  enjoys  telling  us  about  it,  albeit  we  never  feel 
that  he  is  telling  the  story  for  his  own  glory.  H 
he  speaks  much  about  himself  it  is  because  he  was 
in  fact  the  leader  and  centre  of  the  movement; 
and  beneath  his  seeming  egotism  we  learn  to  know 
a  truly  modest  and  noble  man. 

Once  again,  it  need  hardly  be  said,  the  parallel 
between  that  ancient  situation  and  the  task  of  the 
Church  in  an  age  of  social  rebuilding,  Is  very 
striking.  The  theologians,  as  usual,  have  made  a 
botch  of  things.  They  have  their  work  to  do, 
thinking  out  the  great  Issues  of  life  and  faith,  and 
fashioning  the  minds  of  men  in  noble  ideas  and 


120  NBHEMIAH  THE  LAYMAN 

fruitful  insight.  Beyond  that  they  cannot  go  very 
far.  Ecclesiastics  are  in  like  case.  How  futile 
they  are  is  plainly  manifest,  if  we  may  judge  by 
recent  deliverances  in  respect  to  the  reunion  and 
reorganization  of  the  Church.  It  is  a  strange 
blindness  which  thinks  that  we  can  make  up  by 
manipulation  what  is  lacking  in  inspiration,  and 
that  by  a  jugglery  of  words  and  forms,  in  behalf 
of  what  is  called  regularity,  we  can  redeem  the 
Church  from  its  ghastly  failure  of  moral  leader- 
ship in  the  greatest  crisis  in  history.  Such  men 
ought  to  step  aside,  and  let  plain-spoken,  clear-see- 
ing, practical  laymen  take  hold  and  rebuild  the 
Church  for  the  service  of  the  age.  My  appeal  is 
to  the  laymen  of  Britain  and  America  to  come  for- 
ward and  set  the  pulpit  free  from  the  serving  of 
tables  that  it  may  have  time,  and  quiet,  to  brood 
its  visions  and  recover  its  prophetic  power. 

But  to  return  to  Nehemiah.  He  tells  us  how  he 
made  prayer  to  God  for  strength  and  resource,  and 
a  noble  prayer  it  is,  which  he  sets  down  for  our  in- 
spiration and  example.  It  was  his  own  prayer, 
not  one  read  out  of  a  book,  asking  for  guidance 
and  courage,  that  he  might  strike  at  evils  with  the 
power  of  a  fixed  and  definite  purpose.  After  lay- 
ing before  God  the  need  that  burdened  his  heart, 
he  prayed:  "Now,  therefore,  O  God,  strengthen 
my  hands  " ;  and,  being  a  layman,  he  set  about  to 


NEHEMIAH  THE  LAYMAN  121 

answer  his  prayer  by  strengthening  the  hands  of 
others.  It  was  not  enough  to  speak  to  God;  he 
must  needs  speak  to  his  majesty  King  Artaxerxes, 
in  whose  service  he  was  a  humble  cup-bearer.  He 
did  not  simply  ask  Divine  assistance  and  stop,  as 
the  manner  of  some  is — ^he  thought,  he  planned,  he 
laboured,  he  left  nothing  undone;  and  it  was  just 
because  of  his  industry  and  sagacity  that  he  could 
be  used  of  God.  With  Nehemiah  religion  and 
patriotism  were  one  and  the  same  thing,  as  they 
were  with  Gladstone  when  he  said  that  he  went  to 
church,  even  if  a  sermon  was  often  dull,  because 
he  loved  England. 

How  charming  is  the  account  of  his  interview 
with  the  king,  a  day  he  could  never  forget,  and  he 
sets  down  the  exact  date,  for  it  seemed  to  him  like 
a  flood-tide  in  the  affairs  of  men.  "  The  queen 
also  sitting  by  him,"  he  adds  parenthetically,  with 
his  love  of  detail,  as  if,  like  Columbus  at  the  Court 
of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  he  felt  that  in  the 
quicker  insight  and  warmer  sympathy  of  the  queen 
lay  the  final  secret  of  his  success  in  the  under- 
taking on  which  he  had  set  his  heart.  The  king 
asked  him  how  long  it  would  take  and  when  he 
would  return.  "And  I  set  him  a  time,"  says  Nehe- 
miah, so  carefully  had  he  thought  it  all  out  even 
to  the  smallest  detail.  There  must  have  been  a 
lump  in  his  throat  when  he  wrote:  "The  king 


122  NEHEMIAH  THE  LAYMAN 

granted  me  according  to  the  good  hand  of  God 
upon  me."  At  once  the  king  gave  him  letters  to 
the  royal  forester  instructing  that  official,  and  he 
recalls  the  exact  words,  to  "  give  Nehemiah  timber 
to  make  beams  for  the  walls  of  the  city  and  for 
the  house  that  he  would  erect.'*  He  also  gave 
letters  to  "  the  governors  beyond  the  river  '*  that 
they  should  allow  him  to  pass  through  on  his  way 
to  Judea.  Besides,  he  sent  captains  of  the  army  to 
protect  him  from  roving  bands  of  robbers  in  the 
lonely  region  over  which  he  must  journey. 

Some  one  has  said  that  the  eyes  are  the  front 
doors  of  the  mind,  while  the  ears  are  but  the  side 
doors.  Seeing  is  believing!  Nehemiah  did  not 
realize  what  a  task  lay  before  him  until  he  rode 
around  the  walls  at  midnight,  by  moonlight,  and 
saw  how  complete  was  the  ruin  of  the  city  of  his 
fathers.  The  scene  was  enough  to  fill  him  with 
dismay,  but  Nehemiah  was  not  of  that  kind.  Nor 
must  we  be,  if  we  are  to  reconstruct  the  City  of 
God  amidst  the  desolations  of  this  embattled  earth. 
He  called  a  conference  of  the  men  of  the  city,  the 
nobles,  priests  and  rulers,  and  said  to  them :  "  Ye 
see  the  evil  case  we  are  in."  But  he  added,  "  I 
told  them  of  the  hand  of  my  God  which  was  upon 
me  and  of  the  words  of  the  king."  His  words 
were  like  a  clarion  call  to  action,  and  the  men  said : 
"  Let  us  rise  up  and  build.     So  they  strengthened 


NEHEMIAH  THE  LAYMAN  123 

their  hands  for  the  good  work,"  working  together, 
each  one  doing  his  part — even  the  sellers  of  per- 
fumes— by  building  the  part  of  the  wall  over 
against  his  own  house,  by  the  plan  which  Nehe- 
miah  records  in  his  diary. 

Time  does  not  allow  us  to  follow  in  detail  the 
progress  of  the  work,  and  how  Sanballat,  Tobiah, 
and  other  resourceful  enemies,  tried,  first  by  ridi- 
cule, then  by  craft,  then  by  threats,  to  stop  it. 
Alarmed  by  the  advance  made,  they  asked  Nehe- 
miah  to  come  down  from  the  wall  and  discuss  the 
matter.  But  he  knew  that  there  is  safety  in  eleva- 
tion, and,  besides,  having  given  the  king  an  exact 
date,  he  had  no  time  to  waste  talking.  Nehemiah 
knew  human  nature — he  was  a  layman — and  he 
had  a  keen  sense  of  humour.  Again  and  again  it 
flashes  out  in  his  narrative,  as  when  a  kinsman  of 
Sanballat  was  found  making  free  use  of  the  town, 
in  disregard  of  law,  and  Nehemiah  remarks,  "  I 
chased  him  away."  Nehemiah  went  away  for  a 
spell,  and  Tobiah  took  advantage  of  his  absence  to 
enter  the  city  as  if  he  were  a  citizen.  When  Nehe- 
miah returned,  he  threw  all  his  fine  furniture  out 
into  the  street.  Greedy  profiteers  tried  to  ply  their 
trade  in  the  gates  of  the  city  on  the  Sabbath  day, 
against  the  law.  Nehemiah  ordered  it  to  be 
stopped,  and  naively  remarks,  "After  this  they 
came  down  to  the  gate,  once  or  twice,"    That  is 


124  NEHEMIAH  THE  LAYMAN 

to  say,  he  met  them  there,  not  by  appointment,  and 
it  was  at  an  end. 

Truly,  the  more  one  studies  Nehemiah,  the  more 
one  admires  his  work  and  loves  the  workman. 
God  gave  him  a  ruined  wreck,  a  lot  of  mud  and 
rock  and  ordinary  folk,  and  wily  enemies  to  hinder. 
He  mixed  with  it  faith,  courage,  sagacity,  humour, 
and  the  stuff  of  which  dreams  are  made,  and  rebuilt 
the  City  of  the  Eternal.  Such  leaders  we  need  to- 
day, men  of  power,  of  capacity,  of  vision,  laymen 
who  will  bring  their  acumen  to  the  service  of 
every-day  religion.  My  appeal  is  to  laymen  in  be- 
half of  the  Church,  not  as  an  end  in  itself,  but 
as  an  instrument,  an  opportunity.  If  it  is  not  what 
it  ought  to  be,  make  it  so.  If  there  are  those  who 
are  making  free  use  of  it  for  their  own  ends,  do  as 
Nehemiah  did,  chase  them  out.  Outside  the 
Churches  are  many  men  of  active  and  high  moral 
excellence,  of  fine  capacity,  of  flaming  social  pas- 
sion— such  workers  as  the  Church  needs  if  it  is 
not  to  be  merely  a  spiritual  ambulance  following 
in  the  wake  of  war — military  or  industrial — com- 
forting and  healing  the  wounded,  useful  as  that  is. 

Now,  consider.  What  we  want  is  not  union,  but 
unity;  not  uniformity,  but  united  action  and  effort 
in  behalf  of  a  fruitful  spiritual  life  and  a  nobler 
social  order.  If  the  Church  cannot  be  induced  to 
unite  to  do  the  work  appointed  to  it,  manifestly 


NEHEMIAH  THE  LAYMAN  125 

that  work  will  be  done  outside  and  apart  from  it. 
Four  of  the  most  significant  movements  of  our  day 
are  almost  outside  the  Church:  the  Student  Chris- 
tian movement,  the  Brotherhood  crusade,  the  Adult 
School  work,  and  the  Christian  Associations. 
They  are  largely  the  work  of  laymen,  exemplifying, 
as  has  been  well  said,  not  the  form  of  unity,  which 
matters  little,  but  the  spirit  of  unity,  which  matters 
much.  They  are  tokens  of  the  tendency  of  the 
age,  pointing  to  the  presence  of  a  spirit  which,  if 
it  has  its  way,  will  overcome  the  will  to  rivalry  by 
the  will  to  fellowship.  If  we  had  the  sagacity  of 
Nehemiah  we  should  make  the  Church  the  centre 
and  inspiration  of  enterprises  such  as  these,  as  well 
as  of  others  of  like  kind,  and  find  the  renewal  of 
the  life  of  the  spirit  in  the  service  of  man,  which  is 
the  service  of  God. 

When  Nehemiah  had  finished  his  work  as  builder 
he  withdrew  into  the  background  and  let  Ezra  take 
up  his  task  of  teaching.  But  on  the  last  great  day, 
as  the  law  was  read  to  the  people,  he  noted  the 
sadness  on  the  faces  of  those  who  listened,  and 
came  forward  and  said:  "This  is  not  a  day  of 
sadness  and  fasting,  but  of  feasting  and  rejoicing, 
for  the  joy  of  the  Lord  is  your  strength."  There 
lay  the  secret  of  his  power,  and  alongside  it  let  me 
leave  the  vision  of  a  dear  poet-friend  whose  words 
are  like  a  trumpet: 


126  i;rEHEMIAH  THE  LAYMAN 

We  men  of  earth  have  here  the  stuff 
Of  Paradise — we  have  enough ! 
,We  need  no  other  stones  to  build 
The  stairs  into  the  Unfulfilled — 
No  other  ivory  for  the  doors — 
No  other  marble  for  the  floors — 
No  other  cedar  for  the  beam 
And  dome  of  man's  immortal  dream. 
Here  on  the  paths  of  every  day — 
Here  on  the  common  human  way — 
Is  all  the  busy  gods  would  take 
To  build  a  heaven,  to  mould  and  make 
New  Edens.     Ours  the  task  sublime 
To  build  Eternity  in  Time ! 


X 

THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE 

"All  the  city  was  gathered  together  at  the  door. 
s  .  .  And  in  the  morning,  rising  up  a  great  while 
before  day,  He  went  out,  and  departed  into  a  solitary 
place,  and  there  prayed." — Mark  i  :  33-35. 


THE  Gospel  of  Mark  might  have  been  en- 
titled the  Acts  of  Jesus,  so  vividly  does 
it  show  us  the  mighty  Toiler  who  in  the 
shortest  time  wrought  the  greatest  work.  Here 
we  see  Christ  in  direct  contact  with  the  suffering 
of  the  world,  from  morning  until  evening  sur- 
rounded with  every  kind  of  human  distress  and 
woe.  Hardly  a  page  but  echoes  with  the  tramp 
of  the  multitude,  as  the  sick,  the  forlorn,  the 
demon-haunted,  gather  about  Him,  awaiting  His 
touch  of  healing  and  His  word  of  hope.  The 
scene  of  the  text  is  typical  of  a  day  in  the  life  of 
Jesus.  The  last  rays  of  the  dying  sun  saw  Him 
moving  to  and  fro  among  the  throng,  healing  their 
ills  of  body  and  of  soul ;  and  the  grey  dawn  found 
Him   alone   in   a   solitary   place,    renewing  His 

strength  in  the  nourishing  silence  of  God. 

127 


128  THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE 

Again  and  again  it  is  so  recorded ;  and  at  times 
of  crisis,  as  when  He  chose  His  twelve  apostles. 
He  was  wont  to  spend  the  whole  night  in  prayer. 
Such  a  fact  brings  Jesus  nearer  to  us,  doubly  so 
when  we  remember  that  He  was  "  tempted  in  all 
points  as  we  are  '*  and  touched  with  a  feeling  for 
our  infirmities.  The  two  facts  are  closely  related, 
that  Jesus  was  terribly  tried,  terribly  taxed,  and 
that  He  was  a  man  of  prayer.  And  as  His  trials 
were  no  theatric  fictions,  but  real  struggles,  so  the 
strong  cries  and  tears  of  the  Son  of  Man  were  the 
expressions  of  real  and  poignant  need.  There  are 
those  who  think  that  they  can  live  without  prayer, 
but  Jesus  could  not  do  it.  Against  His  practice  of 
prayer  all  arguments  as  to  its  worth  are  invalid. 
Jesus  did  not  argue  about  prayer;  He  prayed. 
His  escapes  into  the  silence  filled  His  disciples  with 
wonder,  and,  having  followed  Him  one  day,  they 
overheard  Him  at  prayer.  What  an  experience — 
to  hear  Jesus  pray!  Listening,  they  realized  that 
they  did  not  know  even  the  alphabet  of  that  high 
art,  because,  at  its  best,  prayer  is  not  asking  for 
favours:  it  is  a  worship  of  the  will  of  God.  No 
wonder  they  humbly  made  request:  "Lord,  teach 
us  how  to  pray." 

Howbeit,  my  point  now  is  that  the  religious  life, 
revealed  in  all  its  splendour  in  Jesus,  has  two  ele- 
ments— ^the  tireiessness  of  domg  good  and  the  great 


THE  EELIGIOUS  LIFE  129 

hush  of  prayer.  These  two  aspects  must  always  be 
kept  together  and  kept  in  balance — action  and  quiet, 
ministry  and  meditation,  work  and  worship,  the 
service  of  God  and  the  service  of  man.  For  re- 
ligion is  both  mystical  and  practical,  and  when 
either  side  is  emphasized  to  the  neglect  of  the  other 
it  is  one-sided  and  unsatisfying.  Let  a  man  in  the 
lust  of  action  be  always  busy,  and  full  soon  a  blight 
as  of  palsy  will  fall  over  his  spirit.  Let  him  give 
himself  to  prayer  and  neglect  the  doing  of  good, 
and  his  prayer  will  become  dry,  mechanical,  and 
profitless.  Faith  without  works  is  dead,  but  works 
without  faith  are  dead  also.  If  we  are  to  see  our 
work  in  its  true  perspective,  and  thus  do  it  intelli- 
gently and  faithfully,  we  must  renew  our  strength 
and  vision  in  the  silences.  The  Son  of  Man 
needed  to  resort  to  the  stillness,  and  who  are  we 
that  we  should  not  have  greater  need?  The 
records  of  Christian  endeavour  show  that  those 
who  have  stirred  the  world  for  righteousness  have 
been  those  who  in  the  wide  and  quiet  place  of  vision 
have  learned  the  secret  of  power. 

Those  who  have  ears  may  hear  two  cries  echo- 
ing adown  the  centuries,  the  cry  for  justice  and  the 
cry  for  God.  When  Wordsworth  was  twenty 
years  of  age  he  walked  with  a  friend  through  the 
Alps.  It  was  in  1790,  and  the  rumbling  of  the 
French  Revolution  was  beginning,  the  bursting  of 


130  THE  EELIGIOUS  LIFE 

the  bands  of  iniquity,  the  overthrow  of  ancient, 
brutal  wrong.  The  poet  heard  it  and  rejoiced,  for 
he  beHeved  that  it  was  a  purging  fire  "  fanned  by 
the  breath  of  an  angry  Providence/'  While  on  his 
mountain  tour  he  reached  the  Convent  of  Char- 
treuse, and  there  he  saw  that  the  life  of  prayer,  of 
meditation,  of  the  mystic  who  seeks  to  plumb  the 
unplumbed  depths  and  find  a  home  for  the  human 
spirit  in  the  Eternal,  has  a  place  in  the  life  of  man. 
It  is  not  only  valid  but  greatly  needed.  Further, 
he  saw  that  the  life  of  quiet,  remote  from  the 
thunder  of  revolution,  does  not  cut  across  the 
dream  of  social  justice,  but  upholds  it,  permeates  it, 
gives  it  height,  depth,  dignity,  and  consecration. 
Hence  his  plea  that  "  these  courts  of  mystery " 
might  be  spared  for  the  sake  of  conquest  over 
sense,  hourly  achieved  through  faith  and  medita- 
tive reason,  since 

Our  destiny,  our  being's  heart  and  home. 
Is  with  infinitude,  and  only  there. 

Even  so  it  has  been  from  the  time  when  the 
penitential  psalmists  wrote  on  yonder  side  of  the 
Pyramids,  and  so  it  will  be  until  whatever  is  to  be 
the  end  of  mortal  things.  To-day,  on  the  one  side, 
we  hear  the  cry,  borne  on  every  wind,  for  social  re- 
construction, and  every  man  who  has  the  heart  of 
a  man  responds  to  that  demand.     Shattered  by  in- 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  131 

conceivable  calamity,  the  world  must  be  rebuilt,  if 
not  as  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  at  least  as  a  juster, 
freer,  ampler,  more  humane  society.  No  longer 
must  a  few  men  have  the  power  to  hurl  millions 
into  the  hell  of  war.  No  longer  must  industry  be 
organized  for  the  benefit  of  a  few,  leaving  the 
many  to  struggle  for  bread  in  a  welter  of  misery. 
No  longer  must  the  best  things  be  shut  up  within 
the  walls  of  opulence  but  scattered  broadcast  for  all 
to  share.  On  the  other  side,  not  so  loudly  clamor- 
ous, but  no  less  insistent — deep,  elemental,  awful, 
too  grand  for  formulation — we  hear,  as  from  age 
to  age  in  the  past,  another  cry  struggling  up 
through  the  silence,  and  stammering  itself  out, 
half -uttered  and  half -dumb;  the  old,  pathetic  cry 
of  the  human  soul  which  is  an  undertone  of  our 
life  to-day,  as  in  all  the  times  agone: 

"  Oh,  that  I  knew  where  I  might  find  Him !  As 
the  heart  panteth  after  the  water  brooks,  so  panteth 
my  soul  after  Thee,  O  God!  " 

From  out-of-the-way  and  unexpected  places  that 
cry  reaches  us,  uniting  our  humanity  in  a  colony 
of  exiles  seeking  a  country.  Sixty  years  ago 
George  Borrow  made  his  tour  through  the  Welsh 
hills,  whereof  he  made  notes,  as  was  his  habit, 
which  appeared  later  in  that  charming  narrative 
Wild  Wales.     On  his  way  to  Llangollen  he  spent 


132  THE  EELIGIOUS  LIFE 

a  Sunday  at  Chester,  attending  the  morning  service 
at  the  cathedral  and  in  the  afternoon  Hstening  to 
the  Methodist  field  preachers.  Toward  evening 
he  went  for  a  stroll  outside  the  walls,  and  there 
came  upon  a  company  of  gypsies,  with  whom  he 
had  talk.  Something  in  his  demeanour  must  have 
made  itself  felt,  for  the  mother  of  the  family  ex- 
claimed, '*  Oh,  it  was  kind  of  your  honour  to  come 
to  us  here  in  the  Sabbath  evening  in  order  that  you 
might  bring  us  God."  The  stranger  was  careful 
to  make  plain  that  he  was  neither  priest  nor  minis- 
ter, yet  the  woman  and  her  daughters  were  urgent. 
"  Oh,  sir,  do  give  us  God ;  we  need  Him,  sir,  for 
we  are  sinful  people.  Give  us  God ! "  Those 
hands  outstretched  in  the  twilight  asking  for  God 
show  us  what  is  deepest  in  our  race  when  the  even- 
ing shadows  fall  over  the  earthly  scene. 

Just  now  the  world  is  so  noisy,  and  we  are  so 
fascinated  with  the  marvellous  drama  of  its  re- 
making, that  we  may  easily  ignore  the  deep  inner 
springs  of  comfort  and  of  power;  and  that  is  a 
peril  both  to  the  soul  and  the  social  order.  Re- 
forms are  so  swift,  so  radical,  and  so  far-reaching 
that  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  seems  at  hand;  but 
we  shall  have  need  of  patience  before  it  arrives. 
For  all  that  is  said  of  economic  law^s,  and  World 
Leagues,  and  social  justice,  it  remains  as  true  as 
ever  that  the  foundations  of  a  spiritual  social  order 


THE  EELIGIOUS  LIFE  133 

are  in  the  souls  of  men.  Spiritual  sanity  and  bal- 
ance demand  that  we  take  time  to  cultivate  the 
deeper,  quieter  life,  if  our  social  service  is  not  to 
be  fretful  and  disappointing.  Blake  was  right 
when  he  wrote: 

"  Great  things  are  done  when  men  and  mountains 
meet; 
This  is  not  done  by  jostling  in  the  street." 

Our  hurry,  our  preoccupation,  may  be  our  defeat, 
if  we  do  not  make  room  for  the  quiet  moment,  and 
learn  to  listen  to  the  murmur  of  those  voices  which 
will  be  audible  when  the  noises  of  to-day  have  fol- 
lowed the  feet  that  made  them.  "  Be  still,  and 
know  that  I  am  God,"  is  an  injunction  the  more 
valid  because  in  our  feverish  hurry  we  may  lose 
the  far  look  which  sees  the  meaning  of  the  near-by 
task. 

The  religious  life  is  not  a  thing  apart,  but  it  must 
have  its  times  of  apartness  for  withdrawal  and  re- 
newal, and  also  its  regular  and  disciplined  habit. 
Without  abating  one  jot  or  tittle  our  effort  for  a 
nobler  social  order,  it  behooves  us  to  put  our  souls 
to  school  betimes  to  the  masters  of  the  spiritual 
life.  Ten  minutes  a  day,  if  no  more,  of  quiet,  of 
meditation  over  some  page  of  heavenly  literature 
will  help  us  to  "  n>collect "  ourselves,  to  use  the 
great  word  of  Plato,  and  thus  redeem  us  from  the 


134  THE  EELIGIOUS  LIFE 

distracted  life.  Of  Emerson  it  was  said:  "Where 
he  was  at  all,  he  was  altogether,"  and  seldom  has  a 
more  quiet  and  confident  spirit  moved  amid  the 
crass  anxieties  of  the  world.  For  lack  of  this 
"  wise  silence  "  our  energies  are  divided,  and  we 
suffer  loss  alike  in  peace  and  power.  When  Dos- 
toyefsky  was  sent  to  Siberia,  at  the  gate  of  the 
prison-pen  a  woman  gave  him  a  little  New  Testa- 
ment, and  it  became  his  bread,  his  meat,  his  friend. 
Living  with  that  little  book,  sleeping  with  it  under 
his  pillow,  reading  it  in  the  dawn  when  his  fellows 
slept,  thinking  his  way  back  into  the  Mind  of 
Christ — by  this  means  he  not  only  saved  his  sanity 
but  came  out  of  "  The  House  of  the  Dead,"  as  he 
called  it,  a  different  and  better  man.  One  some- 
times feels  that  if  it  has  ever  been  given  to  any 
man  to  see  God  it  was  he. 

The  wise,  it  has  been  said,  are  they  who  have 
consented  to  receive  the  knowledge  of  themselves. 
Some  courage  is  needed  for  a  man  to  face  his  own 
soul,  but  we  must  get  acquainted  with  ourselves 
and  see  what  manner  of  beings  we  really  are. 
About  the  time  that  Jesus  was  born  in  the  manger 
a  child  was  born  in  Cordova,  in  Spain,  who  was  to 
be  known  to  the  world  as  Seneca.  The  more  we 
know  of  Seneca  the  more  clearly  do  we  feel  that  he 
would  have  been  among  those  of  whom  Jesus  said, 
"They  shall  come  from  the  east  and  from  the 


THE  EELIGIOUS  LIFE  135 

west,  and  shall  sit  down  in  the  Kingdom  of  God." 
That  pagan  saint  was  also  a  teacher  of  quietness 
and  self -recollection,  but  he  urges  upon  us  the  duty 
and  necessity  of  an  honest,  fearless,  and  daily  in- 
spection of  the  house  of  the  soul  and  its  moral 
sanitation.  It  is  no  mawkish  self -analysis  that  he 
recommends,  but  a  kind  of  moral  surgery  and  a 
measuring  of  our  works  and  ways  at  the  end  of 
the  day.     Hear  him: 

"  It  is  dangerous  for  a  man  too  suddenly  or  too 
easily  to  believe  in  himself.  Wherefore  let  us  ex- 
amine, watch,  observe,  and  inspect  our  own  hearts, 
for  we  are  ourselves  our  own  greatest  flatterers.  We 
should  every  night  call  ourselves  to  account.  What 
infirmity  have  I  mastered  to-day?  What  passion 
opposed?  What  temptation  resisted?  .  .  .  O  the 
blessed  sleep  that  follows  such  a  diary !  O  the  tran- 
quillity, liberty,  and  greatness  of  that  mind  that  is  a 
spy  upon  itself  and  a  private  censor  of  its  own 
manners ! " 

Not  only  do  we  need  detachment  for  self -scru- 
tiny and  the  reinforcement  that  comes  of  medita- 
tion and  prayer,  but  we  need  also  a  more  intimate 
fellowship  than  we  now  enjoy — the  fellowship,  I 
mean,  not  alone  of  public  social  worship,  but  of  the 
little  group,  at  once  revealing  and  creative.  The 
spiritual  loneliness  of  the  modern  world  is  appall- 
ing.     Hardly  less  so  its  reticence  in  respect  of  the 


136  THE  EELIGIOUS  LIFE 

deeper  experiences,  as  if  we  had  suddenly  been 
smitten  mute  concerning  Divine  things  about  which 
our  fathers  talked  freely.  "  It  is  certain/'  says 
Novalis,  "  my  conviction  gains  infinitely  the  mo- 
ment another  soul  will  believe  in  it."  If  we  could 
break  through  the  hampering  restraints  of  our 
timidity,  our  shyness  of  soul,  and  rediscover  the 
uses  of  the  group,  it  would  mean  much,  both  for 
instruction  and  inspiration.  Most  of  the  classics 
of  the  life  of  the  spirit — such  as  "  The  Imitation  of 
Christ " — were  the  fruits  of  community  experi- 
ence, not  simply  of  individual  quest  and  achieve- 
ment. Something  is  needed  to  take  the  place  of 
the  fraternities  of  other  ages,  something  adapted  to 
the  needs  and  conditions  of  our  time,  if  we  are  to 
see  clearly  in  these  days  when  social  action  is  in- 
tense and  swift. 

No  busier  worker  ever  walked  the  earth  than 
Jesus  during  the  days  when  He  journeyed  through 
Galilee  and  Judea,  teaching,  healing  and  blessing 
the  multitudes.  But  diligent  as  He  was,  thronged 
by  crowds  of  the  curious,  the  critical  and  the  needy, 
His  life  was  never  feverish,  never  flurried,  never 
fretful.  If  sometimes  He  was  too  busy  to  take 
food.  He  kept  inviolate  His  times  of  retirement, 
when,  alone  with  His  Father,  He  found  strength 
and  poise  and  patience  for  His  tireless  ministry. 
If  we  would  follow  Him  we  must  go  with  Him  into 


THE  EELIGIOUS  LIFE  137 

the  silent  places,  whence  He  emerged  renewed  and 
with  the  light  of  victory  in  His  face  and  the  note 
of  power  in  His  word. 

Into  the  woods  my  Master  went, 

Clean  forspent,  forspent; 

Into  the  woods  my  Master  came. 

Forspent  for  love  and  shame. 

But  the  olives  they  were  not  blind  to  Him, 

The  little  grey  leaves  were  kind  to  Him, 

The  thorn-tree  had  a  mind  to  Him, 

When  into  the  woods  He  came. 

Out  of  the  woods  my  Master  went. 
And  He  was  well  content; 
Out  of  the  woods  my  Master  came. 
Content  with  death  and  shame. 
When  death  and  shame  would  woo  Him  last, 
From  under  the  trees  they  drew  Him  last ; 
'Twas  on  a  tree  they  slew  Him  last, 
When  out  of  the  woods  He  came. 


XI 

COMPANIONS  OP  THE  HEART* 

SURELY  at  the  opening  of  the  year  we  need 
as  much  to  take  stock  of  our  ideals  as  to  lay 
plans  for  our  work.  The  conviction  is  gen- 
eral and  persistent  that  the  preachers  have  lost 
their  bearings,  and  that  from  their  message  the 
note  of  authority  and  the  thrill  of  momentousness 
have  died  out.  No  doubt  there  are  deep-seated 
and  widespread  causes  for  this  absence  of  the 
power  of  appeal,  and  the  abeyance  of  the  in- 
stinct of  evangelic  persuasion.  With  these  un- 
friendly influences  we  have  not  now  to  do,  except 
to  say  that  our  first  concern  does  not  lie  with  those 
outside,  but  with  our  own  hearts. 

Our  Christian  pulpit  has  fallen,  not  upon  evil 
days,  but  upon  other  days.  The  voices  of  the  age 
call  men  away  from  the  inner  life ;  psychology  seeks 
to  dissolve  it  into  mist  and  dream ;  and  we  are  al- 
most imperceptibly  led  to  neglect  it.    To-day,  even 

*  Essay  read  to  a   Ministerial   Fraternal,   in   the   City 
Temple,  on  a  day  of  meditation  and  prayer. 

138 


COMPANIONS  OF  THE  HEART        139 

more  than  when  Emerson  wrote,  "  things  are  in  the 
saddle  and  ride  mankind,"  and  if — 

Through  the  harsh  noises  of  our  day 
A  low,  sweet  prelude  finds  its  way 

— it  is  often  hard  to  hear.  Our  life  is  obsessed  by 
things  external;  our  literature  gives  us  little  more 
than  passing  thoughts  of  things  eternal.  Science 
has  unveiled  the  incredible  vastness  of  the  universe, 
and  what  we  need  now  is  to  rediscover  the  still 
greater  heights  and  depths  and  richness  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  which  is  within. 

Here  lies  the  imperative  necessity  of  the  pulpit, 
if  it  is  to  recapture  its  lost  power  of  insight  and 
appeal.  The  prophet  of  to-day  must  learn  to  live 
where  insight  is  pure  and  piercing,  where  moral 
earnestness  rises  into  passion,  and  where  the  an- 
cient oracle  of  God  repeats  its  truth  to  the  heart. 
He  must  look  upon  life  with  purified  and  exalted 
vision;  his  vision  must  become  his  utterance;  and 
his  utterance  must  be  commended  by  the  integrity 
of  his  life.  No  server  of  tables,  no  ornament  of 
afternoon  teas,  no  fellow  of  those  strange  sons  of 
privilege  who  think  earth  a  heaven,  can  meet  this 
demand,  much  less  a  boon  companion  of  that  por- 
tion of  the  upper  world  whose  ears  are  so  stuffed 
with  selfishness  that  they  cannot  hear  the  cry  of 
those  for  whom  civilization  is  often  only  exclusion 


140         COMPANIONS  OF  THE  HEAET 

from  the  life  proper  to  rational  beings.  No,  we 
must  live  with  people  if  we  are  to  have  any  insight 
into  social  problems,  and  we  must  live  with  God  if 
we  are  ever  to  solve  them. 

Evermore  the  minister  must  live  in  the  innermost 
life  of  the  spirit,  where  God  makes  character,  and 
where  souls  renew  their  being  in  Him.  In  that 
sphere  in  which  all  higher  living  originates  and 
from  which  it  is  guided  and  sustained,  we  must 
do  our  work.  We  must  keep  close  to  the  poetry 
and  piety  of  the  Christian  ages.  It  is  our  native 
air,  and  nowhere  else  can  we  breathe.  Ours  is  the 
highest  of  all  vocations,  albeit  often  misunderstood 
and  despised.  Our  great  mission  is  to  minister  the 
living  Word  of  the  living  God  to  living  men,  and 
our  weapon  is  the  influence  born  of  the  union  of 
truth  and  sincerity.  The  rewards  of  our  labours 
are  in  the  things  of  mind  and  heart,  with  a  thou- 
sand great  and  tender  memories  that  keep  forever 
alive  faith  and  hope  and  love. 

Hence  my  essay  to-day  on  the  Companions  of 
the  Heart — a  tiny  record  of  a  few  things  learned 
from  the  great  masters  of  the  Inward  Way  who 
show  me  that  with  the  minister,  as  with  every  other 
mortal,  out  of  the  heart  are  the  issues  of  life. 
"  Keep  thine  heart  with  all  diligence  "  is  the  abid- 
ing word  for  each  of  us,  and  if  we  are  to  keep  it 
pure  and  melodious  we  must  give  it  into  the  keep- 


COMPANIONS  OF  THE  HEAET         141 

ing  of  Him  who  made  it.  How  significant  are  the 
words  of  Martineau  on  the  literature  that  moved 
him  most,  and  helped  him  to  keep  his  heart  in  tune 
with  things  eternal:  "  In  devotional  literature  and 
religious  thought  I  find  nothing  of  ours  that  does 
not  pale  before  Augustine,  Tauler,  and  Pascal. 
And  in  the  poetry  of  the  Church  it  is  the  Latin  or 
the  German  hymns,  or  the  lines  of  Charles  Wesley 
or  of  Keble,  that  fasten  on  my  memory  and  heart, 
and  make  all  else  seem  poor  and  cold."  Surely 
here  is  the  ultimate  criticism,  not  only  of  the  move- 
ment with  which  Martineau  was  identified,  but  of 
the  Church  of  to-day.  Why  is  the  Church  unable 
to  produce  such  books  in  our  age?  Need  we  go 
any  further  to  find  out  what  is  lacking  and  why  we 
are  bereft  of  power?  Even  so,  we  must  go  back 
to  the  men  of  the  past,  not  because  they  lived  in  the 
past,  but  because  they  lived  in  the  Eternal  where  a 
thousand  years  are  as  a  day. 

I 

There  remains,  despite  all  changes  and  overturn- 
ing, the  one  great  timeless  Book  of  the  Presence, 
as  fresh  and  rich  to-day  as  ever  it  was  in  the  past, 
revealing  the  fountain  which  sustains  moral  order 
and  spiritual  faith,  and  forever  able  to  inspire  the 
creative  sense  of  a  higher  humanity  moving  to  its 
own  issues  in  the  complex  and  tragic  life  of  the 


U2        COMPANIONS  OF  THE  HEAET 

world.  There  are  two  ways  at  least  in  which  we 
may  read  the  Bible,  with  a  historical  or  with  a  spir- 
itual interest.  The  historian  is  concerned  with  the 
differences  in  it,  even  when  he  is  aware  of  the  unity 
underlying  and  overruling  them,  his  attention  be- 
ing fixed,  if  he  be  a  historian  and  not  an  iconoclast, 
on  the  sundry  times  and  divers  manners  in  which 
that  unity  is  revealed. 

Nevertheless,  if  it  is  our  duty  to  listen  to  all  that 
the  historical  study  of  the  Bible  has  to  say — and 
even  to  be  a  master  of  its  methods — that  is  not  the 
chief  interest  of  the  minister.  It  is  where  the  his- 
torian ends  that  our  real  fellowship  with  that 
greatest  and  wisest  of  all  written  companions  of 
the  heart  begins.  When  we  have  attained  all  that 
is  to  be  won  by  any  reflective  or  intellectual  process 
exercised  upon  the  results  of  historical  study,  the 
real  greatness  of  the  Bible  remains  to  be  explored. 
At  its  utmost  the  fiery  discipline  of  Biblical  criti- 
cism is  only  a  purgatorial  cleansing  for  another  and 
higher  vocation ;  at  its  best  it  can  do  nothing  better 
than  bring  us  in  to  the  minster  door.  To  his  trans- 
lation of  Dante  Longfellow  prefixed  a  noble  son- 
net, in  which,  after  comparing  the  Divine  Comedy 
to  a  dim  great  cathedral  at  whose  gate  a  labourer 
lays  his  burden  while  he  enters  to  pray,  he  wrote 
what  should  be  for  us  a  daily  habit  of  life  with  the 
Bible: 


COMPAOTONS  OF  THE  HEAET         143 

So  as  I  enter  here  from  day  to  day. 
And  leave  my  burden  at  the  minster  gate, 

KneeHng  to  pray  and  not  ashamed  to  pray. 
The  tumult  of  the  times  disconsolate 

To  inarticulate  murmurs  dies  away, 
While  the  eternal  ages  watch  and  wait. 

No  matter  what  the  Bible  is  talking  about,  it 
somehow  always  speaks  with  us,  so  that  when  we 
open  it  we  may  say  with  the  Psalmist,  "  I  will 
hear  what  the  Lord  will  say  unto  me"  (85:  5). 
This  must  have  been  what  Coleridge  meant  when 
he  said  that  the  great  thing  about  the  Bible  is,  that 
"  it  finds  us  " — finds  us  under  what  cover  soever  of 
sophistry  or  subterfuge  we  may  hide,  or  in  what- 
ever thick  darkness  of  sorrow  we  may  be  lost; 
finds  us  with  its  strangely  penetrating  voice,  now 
keen  as  a  sword,  now  gentle  as  the  caress  of  God. 
If  a  man  will  sit  down,  putting  aside  all  theories, 
and  let  that  wise  old  Book  tell  its  story  to  his  heart, 
it  will  do  for  him  what  it  did  for  Erskine,  and 
many  another — make  him  aware  that  he  is  in  the 
hands  of  One  who  is  training  him  to  be  a  good 
man.  That  is  why  the  words  and  scenes  of  the 
Bible  never  grow  gray  with  age,  but 

Always  find  us  young, 
And  always  keep  us  so. 

How  wonderful  it  was  during  the  war  to  read 


144         COMPANIONS  OF  THE  HEAET 

the  Bible,  whose  pages  found  new  and  profound 
exegesis  in  the  teaching  of  events  and  in  the  trag- 
edy of  our  own  hearts.  No  other  book  seemed 
equal  to  such  a  time,  alike  in  its  depth,  its  sincerity, 
its  strength,  and  the  clarity  of  its  vision;  and  when 
we  reached  the  deep  experiences  we  came  near  to 
those  who,  in  the  Bible,  had  walked  among  those 
deep  things — and  we  were  ready  to  take  the  guid- 
ance of  men  who  in  dark  days  found  a  way. 
Things  turned  against  us.  Hopes  failed.  Sorrow 
covered  us  like  a  cloud.  Then  it  was  that  the  great 
and  simple  words  in  which  the  men  of  old  gathered 
up  their  final  reasons  for  holding  on  in  the  battle 
of  life,  shone  like  stars.  How,  they  articulated  the 
voice  of  immortality  within  us,  and  countervailed 
the  melancholy  oracle  of  Lucretius  with  their  calm 
and  confident  assurances!  If  one  may  judge  others 
by  himself,  our  interest  shifted  to  and  fro  between 
the  Gospels  and  the  Book  of  Job,  perhaps  because 
one  expresses  the  highest  faith  and  the  other  the 
deepest  doubt.  Troubled,  tormented,  torn  between 
the  warm  faiths  of  the  heart  and  the  hard  facts  of 
life,  we  turned  now  to  the  words  of  Jesus,  now  to 
the  wailings  of  Job,  and  found  comfort  in  both. 
Indeed,  the  value  of  the  Book  of  Job  to  troubled 
souls  lies  in  its  boldness,  and  the  fact  that  it  enables 
us  to  say  the  worst  things  about  God  which  can 
enter  the  minds  of  good  men  in  their  hour  of  an- 


COMPANIONS  OF  THE  HEAET         145 

guish — helps  us  to  give  vent  to  what  else  would  be 
blasphemies,  but  are  only  cries  of  pain. 

Uttering  every  mood  of  the  heart  of  man,  its 
shrill  cry  of  pain,  its  deep  sob  of  sorrow,  yea,  and 
its  bitter  doubt,  the  Bible  is  also  the  book  of  the 
Answerer  which,  if  a  man  read,  giving  himself  to 
its  awful  sense  of  the  Unseen,  its  passion  for  pur- 
ity, its  vast  pity  and  its  vaster  hope,  will  make  him 
great  of  soul.  Also,  its  great  and  simple  words 
unfold  hidden  meanings  as  the  years  come  and  go, 
as  if  they  were  magic  mirrors  reflecting  our  keenest 
woe  and  our  highest  joy,  and  the  most  secret  long- 
ings of  our  hearts.  So  that,  returning  to  it  after 
every  inner  healing  and  cleansing  of  soul,  every  en- 
larging of  experience,  every  sin,  every  victory  over 
the  beast  within  us,  we  find  in  it  our  autobiography. 
What  a  companion  of  the  heart — how  relentlessly 
honest  with  us,  how  mercilessly  searching,  yet  how 
divinely  revealing  and  rich  in  comfort ! 

II 

After  the  Bible,  Martineau  names  the  "  Confes- 
sions of  Augustine  "  as  a  great  chapter  in  the  litera- 
ture of  the  heart;  and  with  his  verdict,  Bernard, 
Theresa,  and  a  multitude  of  others  agree.  Alex- 
ander Maclaren  always  took  that  book  with  him  on 
his  vacations,  and  his  wonder  grew  with  every  re- 
reading.    Indeed,  it  always  makes  me  think  of  the 


146         COMPANIOI^S  OF  THE  HEAET 

vision  of  Julian  of  Norwich  when  she  saw  the 
world  as  no  larger  than  a  hazel  nut,  and  "  the  soul, 
as  it  were,  an  endless  world  "  of  immeasurable 
vastness  and  unfathomable  depths — whereas,  to- 
day, too  often,  the  reverse  seems  to  be  true.  We 
talk  about  the  psychology  of  religious  experience — 
often  more  about  the  psychology  than  the  experi- 
ence— but  in  Augustine  we  find  the  reality  itself 
about  which  our  professors  talk  so  glibly. 

Outside  of  the  Bible  there  is  no  better  analyzer 
of  the  subtle  processes  of  spiritual  experience,  at 
least  on  its  emotional  and  volitional  side,  than  Au- 
gustine. Reading  his  Confessions  is  like  holding 
a  mirror  up  to  our  own  hearts,  and  few  have  been 
able  to  do  that  without  seeing  that  the  heart  of  man 
is  deceitful  and  desperately  wicked.  There  we  see 
the  push  and  pull  of  motives,  the  tug  of  passions, 
the  ebb  and  flow  of  moral  resolution,  as  if  his 
bosom  were  made  of  glass.  He  was  not  always  an 
accurate  exegete;  as  little  was  he  always  a  sound 
thinker.  But  he  knew  himself,  and  if  we  read  him 
he  will  teach  us  to  know  ourselves,  if  so  we  may 
look  into  our  own  hearts  and  preach.  How  else 
can  we  know  the  human  heart  in  these  days  when 
men  are  so  strangely  reticent  about  the  highest 
things,  save  as  we  search  our  own  souls  and  tell 
what  we  find  there  of  the  power  of  evil  and  the 
mercy  of  God  ? 


COMPANIONS  OF  THE  HEAET         147 

What  is  more,  Augustine  will  teach  us  deep  and 
precious  truths — chief  among  them  that  religion 
is  a  personal  fellowship  with  a  personal  God.  Who 
has  portrayed  more  vividly  the  subtlety  of  sin,  the 
paralysis  of  sensuality,  the  wonder  of  conversion, 
or  the  deep  meaning  of  memory  in  the  life  of  faith  ? 
His  style,  despite  his  use  of  antithesis  and  other 
devices,  is  an  abiding  wonder  alike  for  its  strength 
and  its  delicacy.  In  his  great  hours  of  lyric  love 
of  God,  which  was  the  grand  element  in  his  re- 
ligion, it  would  be  hard  to  name  his  equal.  Some 
of  his  pages  rival  the  Psalms,  and  the  sweetness  of 
that  endless  colloquy  in  prayer,  which  was  an  ac- 
companiment of  his  thinking,  may  teach  us  not 
only  to  think  prayerfully,  but  to  pray  in  a  manner 
worthy  of  Him  who  gives  us  audience.  No  man 
has  ever  summed  up  the  Confessions  in  more  per- 
fect words  than  these: 

I  loved  Thee  late,  dear  Lord,  I  loved  Thee  late ; 
My  years  ran  waste,  but  Thou  didst  love  and  wait ; 
Thou  hast  been  very  patient  with  my  sin. 

Thou  wert  within,  dear  Lord :  I  was  without ; 
I  sought  Thee  there,  and  round  and  round  about ; 
I  found  Thee  not  because  Thou  wert  within. 

Thou  wert  with  me,  and  I  was  not  with  Thee  ; 
Thy  beam  shone  on  my  path :  I  did  not  see ; 
Thy  voice  was  loud,  and  yet  I  did  not  hear. 


148         COMPANIONS  OF  THE  HEAET 

I  hungered  and  I  thirsted  after  truth, 
And  ranged  the  world  through  all  my  f aultful  youth ; 
I  sought  Thee  far,  and  Thou  wert  very  near. 

Stars  for  the  sky,  for  heaven  Thy  glorious  throne, 
But  us  Thou  madest  for  Thyself  alone ; 

Our  hearts  are  restless  till  they  rest  in  Thee. 

O  late,  so  late !    But  all  is  overpast, 
And  peace  is  come,  though  late;  Thy  peace  at  last; 
I  am  with  Thee,  and  Thou,  dear  Lord,  with  me. 


Ill 

Then  there  is  that  golden  little  book  of  the  Fol- 
lowing of  Christ,  a  treasure  unto  everlasting,  the 
gift  to  the  world  of  Thomas  a  Kempis.  Even 
Renan  loved  it ;  Huxley  kept  it  always  on  his  desk, 
and  Arnold  found  it  a  healing  balm  in  a  time  of 
bitter  sorrow.  Quiet,  deep,  wise,  winning,  now 
piercing  in  its  power  of  causing  moral  smart,  now 
lucid  with  the  final  candour  of  sin  laid  bare,  now 
tender  with  the  pathos  of  life  and  the  love  of 
God — what  may  not  one  say  about  it?  Lofty  and 
aloof,  at  times  it  seems  remote  by  the  very  depth 
of  its  vision,  and  some  of  its  words  are  among  the 
deepest  ever  uttered;  as  for  example: 

"  Forsake  yourself,  and  you  shall  find  Me.    I  am 
often  nearest  to  you  when  you  think  Me  far  away. 
Oh,  that  I  certainly  knew ! 
What  would'st  thou  do  if  this  certain  knowledge 


COMPANIONS  OF  THE  HEAET         149 

were  bestowed  on  thee  ?    Do  now  what  thou  would'st 
do  then,  and  rest  secure." 

Mixed  with  these  profound  flashes  of  vision  is  a 
rich  fund  of  spiritual  common  sense.  One  can  see 
a  Kempis  sitting  on  the  old  bench  at  the  Deventer 
school — where  Erasmus  sat  later — '*  in  a  little  nook 
with  a  little  book  " ;  and  his  bright  eyes  saw  every- 
thing. The  keenness  of  his  insight  into  divine 
things  made  the  weaknesses  and  the  vanities  of 
human  nature  transparent,  and  if  he  set  them  down 
candidly  he  w^as  always  kindly.  Perhaps  a  little 
catena  will  best  exhibit  the  quality  of  his  practical 
spiritual  wisdom. 

"If  you  fancy  that  you  know  many  things  and 
fairly  understand  them,  remember  that  the  things  you 
do  not  know  are  many  more  than  the  things  you 
know. 

Learned  men  are  apt  to  make  a  display  of  their 
learning,  but  I  would  rather  feel  compunction  than  to 
be  able  to  define  it. 

The  degree  of  virtue  any  one  possesses  is  mani- 
fested in  times  of  adversity.  Trials  do  not  cause 
human  frailty;  they  serve  to  betray  what  a  man 
really  is. 

He  who  seeks  his  own  loses  the  things  that  are  in 
common.  The  good  man  envies  no  one  since  he  has 
no  private  joy. 

Woe  for  us  if  we  yearn  for  rest,  as  if  peace  and 
safety  were  with  us,  when  as  yet  no  true  sign  of 
holiness  appears  in  our  lives. 


150         COMPANIONS  OF  THE  HEAET 

Be  not  angry  that  you  cannot  make  others  as  you 
wish,  since  you  cannot  make  yourself  as  you  wish. 
Thou  thyself  hast  many  failings  which  must  be  borne 
with  by  others. 

Love  never  feels  a  burden,  never  thinks  things 
tasks,  willingly  attempts  what  is  above  its  strength, 
never  argues  that  things  are  impossible." 

Such  a  book,  if  read  as  it  is  arranged  and  was 
intended  to  be  read,  a  few  lines  each  day,  is  both 
food  and  medicine  to  the  soul.  If  it  has  touches 
of  monastic  ascctism,  and  echoes  of  the  piety  of  the 
cloister,  these  may  not  be  amiss  in  an  age  so  little 
used  to  austerity  and  so  unacquainted  with  quiet. 
As  a  fact,  the  Imitation  is  a  mosaic  of  Bible  words 
and  truths,  wrought  into  a  design  by  one  who  was 
an  artist  in  holiness,  and  as  such  will  last  till  all 
things  mortal  turn  to  dust.  For  a  Kempis  the  way 
to  God  was  the  way  of  self-denial,  of  humility,  of 
withdrawal  from  things  less  than  the  soul,  which 
finds  little  echo  in  our  indulgent  and  easy-going 
age ;  but  when  all  is  said,  the  oldest  man  in  his  ripe 
age  has  never  found  a  wiser,  truer  way. 

IV 

Next  to  the  Imitation,  with  me  at  least,  comes 
that  tiny  little  classic  of  The  Practice  of  the  Pres- 
ence of  God,  by  Nicolas  Herman — better  known  as 
Brother  Lawrence  of  the  Resurrection.     Not  a 


COMPANIONS  OF  THE  HEAET         151 

man  of  letters,  still  less  a  great  thinker,  he  was  yet 
a  master  of  the  finest  of  all  arts — the  art  of  prayer. 
No  one  known  to  me  ever  fulfilled  more  absolutely 
the  injunction  to  "  pray  without  ceasing  "  until,  at 
last,  his  life  became  a  prayer  incarnate.  For 
thirty  years  a  cook  in  a  Carmelite  kitchen,  amidst 
the  drudgery  of  his  labours  he  carried  a  great  still- 
ness of  heart,  and  every  smallest  act  was  done  as  if 
for  God  Himself.  What  sweetness  of  spirit,  what 
simplicity  of  soul,  what  artless  and  unconscious 
sincerity  of  life! 

Humility  is  perhaps  the  rarest  of  all  virtues, 
hardest  to  capture,  hardest  to  define.  It  is  not 
self-abasement,  for  that  imports  a  thought  of  self, 
and  the  humble  man  is  so  full  of  the  good  in  others 
that  he  has  no  time  to  brood  over  himself.  Nor  is 
it  modesty,  since  modesty  is  often  concerned  with 
pride.  Perhaps  we  may  say  that  it  is  the  attitude 
of  men  toward  God,  as  expressed  in  his  attitude 
toward  his  fellows.  If  it  stops  with  humility  to- 
ward God  alone,  it  is  hardly  humility  at  all.  Tol- 
stoy was  aware  of  his  distance  from  Heaven,  but 
he  was  often  impatient  with  his  neighbours.  Not 
so  Nicolas  Herman,  whose  simple,  self-forgetting, 
unconscious  humility  is  one  of  the  finest  flowers  in 
Christian  history.    Hear  some  of  his  simple  words: 

"  The  world  appears  very  little  to  a  soul  that  con- 


1.52         COMPANIONS  OP  THE  HEAET 

templates  the  greatness  of  God.  My  business  is  to 
remain  in  the  presence  of  God. 

Ah!  did  I  know  that  my  heart  loved  not  God,  I 
would  immediately  pluck  it  out.  It  is  our  whole  work 
to  love  God,  without  being  anxious  about  anything 
else. 

Were  God  to  put  me  in  hell,  I  should  not  be 
anxiously  concerned ;  for  He  would  be  with  me,  and 
His  presence  would  be  paradise.  He  will  do  with  me 
what  pleaseth  Him. 

In  the  way  of  God  reflections  or  reasonings  go  for 
nothing;  love  does  all.  The  chief  business  of  the 
philosopher  is  prayer." 

V 

Still  another  Companion  of  the  Heart,  of  rare 
and  pure  vision,  albeit  little  known,  is  Revelations 
of  Divine  Love,  by  Julian  of  Norwich.  As  quaint 
in  style  as  it  is  profound  in  thought,  it  comes  to  us 
from  the  days  of  Chaucer,  of  the  Peasants'  Rising 
in  1381,  and  the  death  of  Wycliff.  Of  these 
things  the  book  tells  us  nothing,  yet  it  is  as  fresh 
and  relevant  to  our  time  as  if  it  were  written  yes- 
terday. Its  glowing  love  of  God,  its  passion  for 
the  service  of  man,  its  eager,  aspiring  quest  for 
union  with  the  Eternal — these  mark  it  as  an  ever- 
lasting book  to  be  read  and  loved  in  every  age. 
The  truths  of  faith  which  many  think  are  the 
trophies  of  our  age  are  set  forth  in  that  book  of  a 
time  long  gone  with  an  insight  as  sane  as  it  is 


COMPANIONS  OF  THE  HEAET         153 

radiant.     Let  me  weave  some  of  its  words  into  a 
passage,  if  so  it  may  tempt  your  heart: 

"  Truth  seeth  God,  and  wisdom  beholdeth  God,  and 
of  these  two  cometh  the  third ;  that  is  Love,  which  is 
God.  God  is  all  that  is  good,  and  the  goodness  that 
each  thing  has,  it  is  He.  .  .  .  God  is  nearer  to  us 
than  our  own  soul.  He  is  the  ground.  He  is  the  sub- 
stance, He  is  the  teaching,  He  is  the  teacher.  He  is  the 
end  and  the  meed  for  which  every  soul  travaileth. 
Till  I  am  oned  with  Him,  I  may  never  have  full  rest 
nor  bliss.  .  .  .  Prayer  uniteth  the  soul  to  God, 
as  if  He  said :  '  I  am  the  ground  of  thy  beseeching,  I 
make  thee  to  will  it,  How  should  it  then  be,  that 
thou  shouldest  not  have  thy  beseeching?'  .  .  . 
All  shall  be  well,  all  manner  of  things  shall  be  well. 
For  by  the  same  blessed  might,  wisdom  and  love  that 
He  made  all  things  to  the  same  end  our  good  Lord 
leadeth  them  continually,  and  thus  to  Himself  shall 
bring  it." 

Ay,  here  is  meat  for  the  mind,  hope  for  the 
heart,  and  light  upon  a  dim  path.  Time  fails  me 
to  tell  of  Theresa  and  her  life  of  prayer,  of  Molines 
and  his  Spiritual  Guide,  of  the  great  child-hearted 
Boehme  whose  Letters  are  mines  of  precious  truth ; 
of  sweet  St.  Francis  whose  life  of  pity  and  joy  is 
one  of  the  gentlest  memories  of  the  world ;  of  the 
Theologia  Germanica  so  beloved  by  Luther;  of 
Bunyan  and  his  allegory  of  the  Pilgrim  of  Faith; 
of  the  Journal  of  Woolman  in  which  we  learn  of 


IM         COMPANIONS  OF  THE  HEAET 

that  sanctuary  of  Silence  where,  morning  and  even- 
ing, he  was  refreshed  by  "  descendings  of  heavenly 
dew  " ;  of  Bushnell  who  said,  "  I  fell  into  the  habit 
of  talking  with  God,  and  do  it  now  without  know- 
ing " ;  of  others  too  many  to  name,  whose  words 
have  brought  courage,  comradeship,  and  the  joy  of 
wise  leadership.  Waking  early  they  ran  ahead  of 
us  to  the  place  of  vision,  and  returned  to  show  us 
the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life.  Their  words 
linger  in  memory,  like  the  strains  of  great  music, 
so  wise  and  true  are  they,  yet  so  intimate  withal 
that  our  own  hearts  seem  to  be  speaking  to  us. 
Listen: 

"  Let  a  man  learn  to  be  at  home  in  his  own  heart, 
and  he  will  surely  come  to  see  what  there  is  to  do  at 
home. 

Every  day  bring  God  sacrifices  and  be  the  priest  of 
this  reasonable  service,  offering  thy  body  and  the 
virtue  of  thy  soul. 

We  carry  our  cloister  with  us.  Our  body  is  the 
cell,  and  the  soul  is  the  hermit  who  dwells  in  it,  there 
to  pray  to  God  and  meditate. 

Humble,  meek,  merciful,  just  and  devout  souls  are 
everywhere  of  one  religion,  and  when  death  hath 
taken  off  the  mask,  they  will  know  one  another. 

They  who  love  beyond  the  world  cannot  be  sepa- 
rated by  it.     Death  cannot  kill  what  never  dies. 

Our  faith  cometh  of  the  natural  love  of  the  soul, 
and  by  the  clear  light  of  reason,  and  of  the  steadfast 
mind  which  we  have  of  God. 


COMPANIONS  OF  THE  HEAET         155 

Were  there  anything  nobler  than  sorrow,  God 
would  have  redeemed  man  thereby.  Sorrow  is  the 
dog  of  the  Good  Shepherd  who  guides  the  flock  of 
man. 

The  heart  has  its  reasons,  which  the  reason  does 
not  know.     This  is  faith :  God  felt  in  the  heart. 

He  always  prays  who  does  good  works,  nor  does 
he  neglect  prayer  but  when  he  leaves  off  to  be  just. 

Nails  would  not  have  held  God-and-Man  fast  to  the 
cross,  had  not  love  held  Him  there. 

Look  that  nothing  live  in  thy  working  mind,  but  a 
naked  intent  stretching  into  God.  Such  a  blind  shot 
with  the  sharp  dart  of  longing  love  may  never  fail  of 
the  mark.    Oh,  the  little  word  of  love ! 

Then  only  have  we  prayed  when  we  can  say: 
'Another  was  just  then  with  me.'  In  His  will  is  our 
peace." 

And  listening,  we  learn  whither  these  dear  Com- 
panions of  the  Heart  would  lead  us,  even  into  the 
great  confessional  of  the  soul  where  we  are  alone 
with  God,  whence  we  emerge  purged  and  endued 
with  power  for  our  ministry.  Blessed  be  such 
guides  who  would  conduct  us  thither  where  we 
seek  to  go,  marking  the  path  of  the  soul  into  that 
august  and  gracious  Presence — to  the  sacrifice  and 
cleansing  in  which  no  Church,  no  priest,  can  take 
part  and  where  no  human  presence  penetrates. 
There  let  us  offer  our  prayer  of  silence  and  listen- 
ing, receive  forgiveness  for  our  shuffling  weakness, 
and  our  paltry  excuses  for  falling  from  the  high 


156         COMPANIONS  OF  THE  HEAET 

level  of  thought  and  purpose  and  conduct  de- 
manded of  us,  and  regain  moral  health  and  spir- 
itual power. 

So  shall  we  become  helpers  of  Christ  in  building 
that  Kingdom  of  Heaven  which  cometh  not  by  ob- 
servation, but  by  faith,  by  thought,  by  deed,  by  just 
will  and  loving  service — the  Church  of  the  Living 
God  so  built  that  beholders  shall  say,  not  *'  See 
what  manner  of  stones  are  here,"  but,  *'  See  what 
manner  of  Men!  '* 


XII 
"NEARER,  MY  GOD,  TO  THEE" 

*'  0  that  I  knew  where  I  might  find  Him." 

—Job  23 : 3. 

"  He  is  not  far  from  any  one  of  iis;  for  in  Him  we 
live  and  move  and  have  our  being." — Acts  17:  28. 

"  Surely  the  Lord  was  in  this  place,  and  I  knew  it 
not." — Gen.  28 :  16. 

NO  hymn,  perhaps,  has  brought  more 
strength,  more  courage,  more  consola- 
tion to  weary  human  hearts  than  the 
familiar  lines  of  "  Nearer,  My  God,  to  Thee/* 
Yet,  strangely  enough,  this  dear  and  haunting 
hymn  was  once  deemed  heretical,  and  had  to  make 
its  way  against  many  odds;  but  it  is  now  trium- 
phant everywhere.  Even  those  who  deal  in  crabbed 
dogmas  could  not  long  resist  a  hymn  which  utters 
a  need  so  profound,  an  aspiration  so  universal. 
Softly,  sweetly,  surely,  it  won  its  way  into  the 
heart  of  humanity,  like  summer  in  a  winter  wood, 
and  to-day  the  memory  of  its  author  has  an  altar- 
rail  around  it.  How  far  this  hymn  has  journeyed, 
what  service  it  has  rendered,  only  one  of  the  great 

157 


158       "NEAEEE,  MY  GOD,  TO  THEE" 

Angels  could  record;  but  perhaps  an  incident  will 
help  us  to  realize  its  ministry. 

When  William  McKinley,  our  noble  and  gentle 
President,  was  assassinated,  it  was  arranged  that 
at  the  hour  his  body  was  lowered  into  the  tomb 
everything  should  stop  everywhere,  and  the  whole 
nation  sing  his  favourite  hymn.  I  was  in  Chicago, 
and  it  was  a  day  I  can  never  forget.  All  flags 
hung  at  half-mast,  and  suddenly,  at  two  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon,  a  hush  fell  over  the  busy  city. 
Everything  stopped,  trains,  trams,  taxis,  teams; 
all  shops  closed,  and  the  din  of  the  streets  fell 
silent.  Indeed,  they  seemed  more  like  the  aisles  of 
a  great  cathedral  than  the  teeming  thoroughfares 
of  a  metropolis.  Multitudes  stood  in  silence,  with 
uncovered  heads,  and  then,  as  if  by  common  im- 
pulse, they  knelt  and  sang  the  hymn  of  the  Presi- 
dent, their  voices  broken  by  sobs.  The  tones  of 
that  music  beat  like  sea  waves  upon  my  heart,  until 
it  was  almost  broken;  and  everywhere  the  one 
hymn  in  which  the  sorrow  of  a  nation  found  voice 
and  solace  was,  "  Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee,  Nearer 
to  Thee.'' 

For  the  history  of  this  hymn  we  must  go  back 
to  the  dingy  little  chapel  of  the  South  Place  Society 
in  London.  Turning  the  memorial  volume  of  that 
Unitarian  Church,  two  lovely  faces  look  out  upon 
us  from  its  pages — Eliza  and  Sarah  Flower,  their 


"  NEAEEE,  MY  GOD,  TO  THEE  "       159 

great,  beautiful  eyes  framed  in  flowing  ringlets. 
They  were  the  daughters  of  the  famous  editor  of 
the  Cambridge  Intelligencer,  Benjamin  Flower, 
who,  for  criticizing  the  Bishop  of  Llandaff  in  his 
paper,  was  sent  to  prison.  While  in  prison  he  was 
visited  by  a  lady  of  like  faith,  whom,  on  his  release, 
he  married.  From  such  parentage,  from  such  tra- 
ditions came  these  two  gifted  sisters  who  were  left, 
after  the  death  of  their  father  and  mother,  to  the 
guardianship  of  their  pastor,  Charles  Fox.  They 
were  noble,  cultured,  and  refined,  and  their  home 
at  Dalston  was  a  centre  for  musical  and  literary 
folk — Browning,  then  a  boy-poet,  being  one  of 
their  friends.  When  Mendelssohn  visited  England 
he  was  a  guest  in  their  home,  and  recognized  the 
genius  of  Eliza.  Sarah  had  an  enthusiasm  for  the 
stage,  but,  disappointed  in  her  hope  of  being  "  The 
Actress,"  of  whom  she  wrote  in  one  of  her  prose 
sketches,  became  a  hymn-writer.  In  1834  she 
married  Williams  Adams,  and  rumour  had  it  that 
John  Stuart  Mill  sought  the  hand  of  her  sister 
Eliza,  whose  frail,  flower-like  beauty  bespoke  an 
early  end. 

The  two  sisters,  whose  voices  were  mated  like 
their  souls,  sang  in  the  choir  of  the  South  Place 
Chapel,  and  more  than  once  they  set  to  music  the 
harmonies  of  thought  and  feeling  evoked  by  the 
spirit  of  their  pastor.     There,  for  that  little  chapel 


160       "NEAEER,  MY  GOD,  TO  THEE" 

choir,  this  great  hymn  was  written,  and  for  nearly 
a  generation  it  had  no  other  home — having  been 
pubUshed,  in  the  year  after  it  was  written,  by 
Fox  in  his  "  Hymns  and  Anthems  "  in  1841.  It 
seems  almost  incredible  that  a  hymn  now  sung  with 
such  depth  and  fervour  of  feelir'^  ind^with  such 
a  sense  of  satisfaction  by  men  of  every  creed, 
should  ever  have  been  barred  from  the  worship  of 
the  Church  on  the  ground  that  its  theology,  or  lack 
of  it,  was  bad.  Yet  such  was  the  fact.  Of  course 
the  objection  was  that  it  did  not  use  the  name  of 
Christ,  a  complaint  equally  valid  against  the  Lord's 
Prayer  and  St.  Paul's  Hymn  of  Love.  Theolog- 
ical tinkers  tried  betimes  to  mend  this  "  defect," 
changing  some  lines  and  adding  others.  Happily, 
their  poor  efforts  are  now  lost  in  the  rubbish-heap 
of  things  forgotten,  and  the  final  triumph  of  the 
hymn  came  when  Lowell  Mason  wrote  the  Bethany 
tune  for  it.  Beecher  included  it  in  his  "  Plymouth 
Collection  "  in  1855,  and  a  song  which  came  from 
the  heart  found  its  way  to  human  hearts  every- 
where, lifting  them  on  its  wings  nearer  to  God. 

Sarah  Flower  wrote,  besides  her  prose  sketches, 
a  poem  in  honour  of  the  gentle  martyr  of  Carthage, 
"  Vivia  Perpetua,"  which  was  no  less  a  page  from 
her  own  heart.  It  was  a  kind  of  hymn,  albeit  the 
music  was  subdued  by  an  uncertainty  of  faith,  as 
we  learn  from  a  letter  to  her  pastor,  in  which  she 


"NEAEEE,  MY  GOD,  TO  THEE"       161 

confessed,  in  deep  sorrow,  that  the  Bible  no  longer 
spoke  to  her  with  its  old  authority.  She  was  sorely 
troubled,  and  God  seemed  far  off.  Such  a  shadow 
waits  for  ev^ry  one,  or  soon  or  late,  who  advances 
in  the  things  of  the  spirit,  since  it  seems  to  be  a  law 
that  we  mnst  k  ^^'our  faith  in  order  to  find  it  in  its 
larger,  deeper  form — only,  alas!  some,  not  under- 
standing this  law,  lose  patience  and  do  find  a  larger 
faith.  For  a  "  tender-minded "  person  there  is 
hardly  a  keener  form  of  suffering  known  on  earth, 
as  Romanes  bore  witness.  We  can  bear  much — 
anything,  perhaps — if  only  our  faith  holds;  but 
when  that  goes  the  way  is  dim.  Never  was  Phil- 
lips Brooks  wiser  or  nearer  the  need  of  the  heart 
than  in  his  essay  on  "  Healthy  Conditions  of  a 
Change  of  Faith,"  in  which  he  marks  the  path 
along  this  difficult  way.  It  is  a  stony  place,  as 
many  can  testify,  but  we  must  not  let  the  hardness 
of  it  get  into  our  hearts. 

Such  was  the  mood  of  heart,  when  she  was  a 
wanderer  in  quest  of  a  larger  faith,  in  which  Sarah 
Flower  wrote  her  hymn.  She  was  a  pilgrim  in  the 
lonely  places  of  the  soul,  and  her  pastor  did  all 
that  any  one  can  do  for  another  at  such  a  time. 
After  all,  about  all  we  can  do  for  one  another  is 
just  to  love  one  another  and  be  patient,  sympa- 
thetic, and  gentle.  "  Master,  can  all  this  be  needed 
to  find  God  ?  "  asked  Saint-Martin  of  his  teacher 


162       "NEAEEE,  MY  GOD,  TO  THEE'' 

of  the  inward  way.  "  We  must  even  be  content 
with  what  we  have,"  was  the  wise  and  deep  reply. 
Amid  much  that  was  dim  our  singer  found,  as 
Newman  found,  as  Augustine  found,  one  thing 
sure,  yea,  two  things  certain — God  and  the  Soul! 
Life,  with  all  its  high  adventure,  is  just  our  chance 
of  knowing  God,  whom  to  know  aright  is  life 
eternal.  Those  who  miss  Him  find  Him  again; 
those  who  cry  out  in  darkness  come  at  last  to  the 
light — if  not  here,  then  out  yonder  in  the  City  on 
the  Hill.  Eight  years  after  she  had  written  her 
hymn  Sarah  Flower  died  broken-hearted  at  the 
death  of  her  sister,  who  passed  away  in  1846.  But 
her  song  has  in  it  a  hint  of  a  mom  beyond  our 
mornings,  of  something  that  awaits  us  better  than 
our  reasonings — better,  even,  than  our  dreams. 

Like  so  many  great  hymns,  "  Nearer,  My  God, 
to  Thee,*'  is  an  exegesis  in  song  and  sorrow  of  a 
familiar  Bible  scene.  Israel,  in  their  long  agony 
of  travail,  gave  us  a  Book  of  Seers,  and  we  have 
not  yet  gone  beyond  what  they  learned  in  their 
loneliness  and  vision.  Living  in  dark  times,  they 
retired  into  themselves  and  gathered  together  their 
final  reasons  for  holding  on  in  the  battle  of  life; 
and  their  great  and  simple  words  still  bear  the 
weight  of  our  need.  Our  sweet  singer  found  it  so, 
seizing,  as  if  by  instinct,  upon  the  scene  most  typ- 
ical of  the  romance  of  God  and  the  soul.     What 


**NEAEEE,  MY  GOD,  TO  THEE"        163 

an  epitome  of  human  nature  was  the  life  of  Jacob ! 
There  we  see  the  meanness  of  man  and  his  majesty, 
his  pettiness,  and  his  power;  man  the  fraud,  the 
trickster,  the  cheat — and  the  dreamer.  How  con- 
temptible he  can  be,  how  unjust,  how  sordid ;  yet  is 
he  redeemed  by  the  dignity  of  a  Divine  dream — 
how  wicked,  yet  how  wonderful !  Truly  it  is  mys- 
ticism that  saves  us  equally  from  cynicism  and 
doubt;  and  our  poet  found  that  the  Bible  tells  the 
whole  truth  about  man,  his  littleness  and  his  great- 
ness— found  that  it  knew  her  better  than  she  knew 
herself. 

Two  old  and  profound  questions  are  raised  by 
this  hymn,  and  if  we  may  not  say  that  the  singer 
solved  them,  she  at  least  pondered  them  reverently. 
The  first  is  the  mystery  of  the  Divine  elusiveness. 
Manifestly,  the  God  of  the  Bible  is  nowhere  unless 
He  be  everywhere.  Why,  then,  we  ask,  in  bewil- 
derment, if  God  be  everywhere,  if  in  Him  we  live 
and  move  and  have  our  being,  does  He  seem  so  far 
off?  What  is  the  meaning  of  this  strange  with- 
drawal of  God,  whereby  we  are  left  to  grope  our 
way  over  stony  places,  our  bed  a  stone?  There 
must  be  a  deep  and  wise  reason  for  it,  else  it  would 
not  be  so.  Is  it  a  real  withdrawal  or  only  seem- 
ing? Does  His  hiding  from  us  mean,  as  Pascal 
said,  that  we  would  not  seek  Him  if  we  had  not 
already  found  Him,  and  by  seeking  Him  we  find 


164        ^^NEAEEE,  MY  GOD,  TO  THEE'^ 

ourselves,  find  what  life  is,  what  it  means,  and 
what  it  is  worth?  Withdrawing  and  yet  abiding, 
does  He  mean  to  teach  us  that  we  cannot  live  with- 
out Him,  and  cannot  live  with  Him  unless  we  live 
godlike  lives?  Is  it  expedient  that  He  go  away, 
if  so  that  He  may  thereby  come  closer  to  us,  just 
as  our  friends,  when  they  die  seem  lost  a  w^hile,  but, 
later,  steal  softly  into  our  hearts,  nearer  than  they 
were  before? 

All  the  great  relationships  of  life  depend  for 
their  beauty  and  vitality  upon  a  rhythm  of  nearness 
and  distance,  of  intimacy  and  aloofness,  of  ap- 
proach and  withdrawal.  The  sky,  for  example,  is 
as  near  as  it  is  far.  It  seems  aloft,  far  away,  arch- 
ing over  our  fleeting  life,  yet  it  really  begins  at  the 
top  of  the  ground.  We  live  in  it.  We  breathe  it. 
Always  its  soft  pressure  is  upon  us.  It  is  so  in 
human  fellowships,  and  to  forget  that  fact  is  to 
trample  upon  the  holiest  things  of  life.  Between 
husband  and  wife,  between  father  and  son,  there  is 
this  rhythm  of  familiarity  and  formality,  of  devo- 
tion and  restraint,  of  sweetness  and  severity,  by 
which  the  relationship  is  kept  sweet.  Friendship 
lives  in  the  same  delicate  law.  God  is  with  us, 
within  us,  "  closer  than  breathing,  nearer  than 
hands  and  feet  " ;  but  our  eyes  are  holden,  that  we 
may  walk  by  faith,  not  by  sight.  If  we  indeed  saw 
God  as  He  is,  if  the  awful  reality  of  His  nearness 


"NEAREE,  MY  GOD,  TO  THEE"       165 

were  unveiled,  our  doubts  would  vanish,  but  our 
discipline  would  end  as  well.  The  victory  of  faith, 
the  patience  of  hope,  and  the  sacrifice  of  love  would 
have  neither  meaning  nor  value — and  it  is  by  these 
things  that  the  soul  is  trained.  So,  even  in  the 
blindness  which  is  our  only  wisdom,  we  can  see 
that  our  highest  beatitude  here  must  needs  be  the 
joy  of  those  who  have  not  seen  and  yet  have  be- 
lieved, those  who  by  struggle  have  been  made 
strong. 

Yet  in  my  dreams  I'd  be 
Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee. 

Socrates,  and  after  him  a  whole  race  of  seers, 
held  that  Divine  truth  is  dim  and  dream-like  only 
because  we  are  not  awake.  Our  birth  is  indeed 
"  a  sleep  and  a  forgetting,'*  and  not  many  ever 
really  wake  up  in  this  life.  Hence  the  awful  sense 
of  unreality  that  torments  us,  making  the  trial  and 
adventure  of  faith,  which  must  trust  the  vague, 
dissolving  dreams  of  the  soul  as  against  the  brute 
facts  of  the  world.  Yet  our  highest  wisdom  lies 
in  our  angel-mindedness,  and  not  in  our  smart 
cleverness,  as  the  life  of  Jacob  shows  us.  He  be- 
lieved in  his  dream,  built  an  altar  to  it,  made  a  vow 
of  loyalty,  and  God  kept  the  vow.  After  twenty 
years,  as  he  returned  that  way,  the  angels  met  him 
not  in  a  dream,  but  in  the  open  light  on  the  common 


166       *<NEAEEE,  MY  GOD,  TO  THEE" 

road.  Rachel  died.  Joseph  was  reported  *'  miss- 
ing." Famine  visited  him.  Old  age  came  on  with 
many  infirmities.  Yet,  through  it  all,  the  vow 
held,  and  slowly  the  vision  fulfilled  itself  in  his  ex- 
perience, so  that,  when  he  died,  the  dream  was  still 
there  and  nothing  had  passed  but  his  sleep. 

The  other  question  is  darker  and  far  more  diffi- 
cult, yet  one  has  the  feeling  that  the  singer  came 
nearer  solving  it  than  she  did  the  first.  Indeed,  no 
one  may  ever  hope  to  come  nearer  the  meaning  of 
that  shadowy  mystery  than  Sarah  Flower  did  in 
those  lines  which  so  many  choke  in  trying  to 
sing: 

All  that  Thou  sendest  me 

In  mercy  given. 

In  mercy!  Is  it  a  merciful  thing  that  man  should 
be  a  wanderer  on  the  earth,  suffering  woe,  weari- 
ness, wretchedness,  his  pillow  a  stone?  Why  is 
life  so  hard?  Why  should  the  way  lead  through 
the  stony  place,  amid  griefs  unspeakable,  and  with 
so  many  graves  along  the  roadside?  Could  not 
the  path  have  been  made  easier?  Yes,  if  it  was 
intended  that  man  should  live  as  a  fat  ox,  knee- 
deep  in  rich  grass,  with  nothing  to  do  but  eat  and 
sleep.  But  what  if  the  purpose  of  God  be  some- 
thing else,  something  higher?  What  if  the  pur- 
pose of  life,  considered  deeply,  be  to  open  our  eyes 
to  what  life  is,  set  us  dreaming  of  God,  and  grow 


"NEAREE,  MY  GOD,  TO  THEE»»       167 

a  noble  and  valiant  soul?  If  that  be  so,  it  would 
be  no  mercy  to  leave  us  untroubled,  lest  we  pass  our 
days  and  never  live  at  all ! 

Our  greatest  hope  in  life,  said  Tagore,  is  that 
suffering  is  there ;  it  has  "  driven  man  with  his 
prayer  to  knock  at  the  gate  of  the  infinite  in  him, 
the  divine,  thus  revealing  his  deepest  instinct,  his 
unreasoning  faith  in  the  reality  of  the  ideal — the 
faith  shown  in  the  readiness  for  death,  in  the  re- 
nunciation of  all  that  belongs  to  the  self."  *  With 
which  agrees  the  insight  of  the  Bible,  whose  seers 
discovered  that  dark  and  dire  tragedy,  if  bravely 
met,  softens  our  nature  and  attunes  it  to  melodies 
not  heard  before.  How  often  in  the  Bible  we  hear 
some  one  saying  that  he  is  a  much  better  man  now 
that  God  has  plunged  him  into  the  deep  waters  of 
sorrow  than  he  used  to  be  when  he  had  no  troubles. 
They  even  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  God  did  well 
when  He  let  loose  woes  upon  them :  that  He  knew 
them  better  than  they  knew  themselves.  When 
they  recall  the  things  that  used  to  vex  them  and  fill 
them  with  envy  they  have  no  words  to  express  their 
joy  at  being  set  free  from  poverty  and  paltriness  of 
spirit.  They  confirm  our  own  experience  that, 
while  pleasures  leave  only  faint  traces  on  the  sur- 
face of  the  soul,  our  conflicts,  our  crises,  our  storm 
and  stress  teach  us  the  truth  that  is  life.  Hence 
'"Personality,"  Chapter  III.    The  Second  B.irth. 


168       "NEAEER,  MY  GOD,  TO  THEE" 

the  lesson  learned  by  living — that  we  can  never  find 
or  receive  the  greatest  truths  until  sorrow  has  soft- 
ened us  and  made  us  tender  and  humble  of  heart. 
No  fact  is  more  certain,  and  in  that  fact  we  find 
the  reason,  so  far  as  we  can  know  it,  for  the  hard- 
ness of  life. 

Take  two  examples,  one  from  fact,  one  from 
fiction,  but  both  equally  true;  the  first  from  the  life 
of  Charlotte  Bronte.  What  a  remarkable  family 
lived  in  the  Haworth  parsonage,  facing  the  grey 
cemetery  and  the  wind-swept  moor,  the  father  as 
glum  and  gloomy  as  Dean  Swift,  the  daughters — 
two  of  them — dowered  with  great  genius,  the  son 
a  moral  wreck.  One  knows  not  which  was  the 
greater,  Emily  or  Charlotte — Emily,  whose  secret 
few  have  divined,  and  who  was  never  so  much  at 
home  as  when  on  the  moor  with  its  magic  of  wild 
earth  and  wild  sky,  its  granite  grey  as  time;  the 
moor  when  brushed  by  lavender  twilights  or  trans- 
figured by  sunset  fires.  Yet  sorrow  followed  fast 
and  followed  faster.  Branwell  died  of  drink,  and 
the  decay  of  his  health  and  mind  was  horrible  to 
see.  Emily  faded,  and,  though  denying  that  she 
was  ill,  went  away,  taking  her  secret  with  her. 
Annie  followed  shortly,  leaving  Charlotte  alone 
with  her  father,  who,  never  easy  to  live  with,  be- 
came more  difficult  as  sorrow  was  added  to  sorrow. 
Hear  her  thoughts: 


<^NEAEEE,  MY  GOD,  TO  THEE"       169 

"  Take  the  matter  as  you  find  it.  Ask  no  questions. 
You  expected  bread,  and  you  have  got  a  stone.  Break 
your  teeth  on  it.  Do  not  doubt  that  the  stone  will 
digest.  You  held  out  your  hand  for  an  egg,  and  fate 
put  into  it  a  scorpion.  Show  no  consternation.  Close 
your  fingers  firmly  over  the  gift;  let  it  sting  through 
the  palms.  Never  mind.  In  time,  after  your  hand 
and  arm  have  swelled  and  quivered  long  with  torture, 
the  squeezed  scorpion  will  die.  If  you  survive  the 
test,  you  will  be  stronger,  wiser,  less  sensitive." 

There  must  have  been  a  gritty  dryness  behind 
her  burning  eyes  when  she  wrote  those  stern,  stoic 
words,  half  defiant  in  their  hardness.  Let  us  not 
chide  her — God  forbid! — she  was  a  brave  little 
woman:  all  of  us  talk  wisely  until  our  own  hearts 
are  broken.  Yet  there  is  a  wiser  way  than  hers, 
and  happy  is  he  who  finds  it.  It  is  hinted  to  us  by 
Maarten  Maartens  in  his  story  of  "  Herman  Pols,'* 
a  book  of  real  power  and  depth,  letting  light  into 
some  of  the  darkest  corners  of  life.  There  is  a 
sermon  in  the  book,  reminding  one  of  those  search- 
ing sermons  scattered  through  the  stories  of  Mark 
Rutherford,  one  passage  of  which  lingers  in  mem- 
ory. The  text  is,  "If  he  ask  for  bread,  will  he 
give  him  a  stone  ?  "  and  the  answer  reads  like  a 
page  from  the  life  of  the  writer — a  page  blotted 
with  tears.     Listen: 

"  Still  bread,"  cried  the  preacher,  "  though  ye  deem 
it  a  stone  in  the  giving !     Still  bread,  though  it  bruise 


170        "NEAREE,  MY  GOD,  TO  THEE" 

your  hands  and  though  it  break  your  teeth !  Bread 
of  Hfe,  for  ye  asked,  and  the  Father  hath  given  it! 
Bread  of  Hfe,  in  the  end,  whatsoever  it  may  seem  to 
you  now,  in  the  eating !  Still  bread,  not  a  stone !  Do 
you  dare  to  take  this  thing  that  the  Father  hath  sent 
you,  this  trouble,  this  bereavement,  this  unbearable 
affliction — do  you  dare,  you  poor  mortal,  to  spread  it 
out  in  God's  presence — to  say, '  Father,  I  asked  Thee ! 
I  asked  Thee !  Thou  hast  given  me  a  stone ' !  Do 
you  dare  ?  " 

No;  if  it  is  the  will  of  God  that  we  eat  stony 
bread,  let  us  partake  of  the  Sacrament  of  Sorrow 
with  humble  hearts;  and  if  we  cannot  be  grateful 
for  all  things,  we  can  be  grateful  in  all  things. 
Jacob  took  "  the  stones  of  that  place  **  and  made 
an  altar  of  prayer;  our  singer  turned  them  into  a 
song.  It  is  not  easy  to  do,  as  God  knows,  but  it  is 
the  best  and  wisest  way.  They  are  to  be  accounted 
as  having  fulfilled  the  purpose  of  life  who  in  this 
great  matter  have  not  failed — they  only  have  lived. 
Some  days  ago  a  man  sent  me  a  letter  from  some- 
where in  Wales,  telling  of  a  sermon  which  he  heard 
Joseph  Parker  preach  in  the  City  Temple  in  the 
mid-*seventies,  and  he  remembers  it  yet.  The 
question  of  the  sermon  was,  "  Does  God  Forsake 
the  Righteous  ? "  and  in  the  course  of  it  the 
preacher  described  the  abode  of  a  poor  widow. 
He  spoke  of  it  as  "  a  place  out  of  which  even  a 
sheriff's  officer  could  not  take  more  than  a  shadow. 


"NEAKEE,  MY  GOD,  TO  THEE''        171 

and  would  not  take  that  because  he  could  not  sell 
it.'*  There  was  a  figure  to  stick  in  the  memory. 
Later  the  preacher  said:  "  I  have  been  as  nearly 
forsaken  as  any  man  in  the  world.  I  looked 
around  on  all  sides,  but  could  see  no  way  out — no 
lateral  way,  only  a  vertical  one! "  What  a  phrase ! 
Often  it  is  so  in  the  strange  vicissitudes  of  life — 
the  only  way  out  is  up ;  and  when  the  angel  within 
us  ascends  the  ladder  of  faith  it  is  met  by  the 
Angels  of  God  descending  with  blessing.  Then, 
and  then  only,  does  the  place  of  sorrow  become  a 
place  of  vision,  and  the  pillow  of  pain  a  pillar  in 
the  house  of  God.  Our  singer  rose  above  her 
doubt,  her  dismay,  and  it  is,  therefore,  that  the 
hymn  closes  with  the  whirr  of  wings  cleaving  the 
sky,  lifting  her  from  the  shadowed  earth  to  the 
shadowless  heavens;  happy  wings  homeward 
bound,  like  the  doves  at  the  prophet's  window. 

Thou  Life  within  my  life,  than  self  more  near. 
Thou  veiled  Presence,  infinitely  clear, 
From  all  elusive  shows  of  sense  I  flee, 
To  find  my  centre  and  my  rest  in  Thee. 


XIII 

THOSE  GONE  BEFORE 

"  That  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved  said  to  Peter, 
'  It  is  the  Lord! ' " — John  21 :  7. 

THERE  is  about  this  narrative  an  air  of 
naturalness  which  sets  it  apart  from  other 
such  accounts.  It  has  a  restraint,  a  dig- 
nity, a  delicacy,  and,  withal,  a  vividness  of  human 
detail  which  give  it  every  mark  of  authenticity. 
Its  human  colour  and  its  awful  yet  tender  dis- 
closure blend  as  naturally  as  earth  and  sky  on  the 
horizon.  No  imagined  account  known  to  me  gives 
anything  like  the  same  impression  of  validity  in 
beauty.  Always  it  is  so  in  the  Bible,  and  espe- 
cially in  the  New  Testament,  in  which  the  unseen 
mingles  naturally,  softly,  benignly  with  our  mortal 
life,  now  like  a  gentle  air  touching  our  temples, 
now  as  imperceptible  as  ether.  One  has  only  to 
read  some  of  the  apocryphal  records  to  see  the  dif- 
ference in  attitude,  as  well  as  in  style. 
After  a  night  of  fruitless  labour  the  disciples 
172 


THOSE  GONE  BEFOEE  173 

descried  a  Figure  walking  on  the  shore  in  the 
morning  light.  At  first,  be  it  noted,  they  did  not 
know  Him.  That  is  an  eloquent  fact,  suggestive 
of  many  things,  and  just  what  might  have  been 
expected  in  such  an  event.  It  is  often  so  with  us 
here.  Friends  return  after  years  of  absence  so 
greatly  altered  that  we  look  at  them  for  a  time  with 
unrecalling  eyes.  Gradually,  after  a  while,  they 
are  disclosed.  Some  peculiarity  of  gesture  or 
manner,  some  tone  of  voice,  some  familiar  expres- 
sion, and  we  see  the  old  face  in  the  new.  At 
Emmaus  the  disciples  recognized  Jesus  in  the  fa- 
miliar act  of  breaking  bread.  Note,  also,  on  the 
lake  at  dawn,  that  it  was  the  man  nearest  to  Him 
in  natural  affection  and  spiritual  afifinity — that  dis- 
ciple whom  Jesus  loved — who  knew  Him  first.  It 
was  John,  the  seer,  who  gave  vision  to  Peter,  the 
man  of  action.  So  it  is  always ;  but  the  suggestion 
here  is  very  significant  of  the  power  of  love  to 
penetrate  the  disguises  of  life  and  death.  Ulysses 
returned  after  his  wanderings  and  was  unrecog- 
nized, save  by  his  dog  Argus,  and,  later,  by  his 
old  nurse.  Had  his  mother  been  present,  no  doubt 
she  would  have  known  the  bronzed  and  bearded 
figure  at  the  door. 

Often  is  it  life,  not  death,  that  changes  us  past 
love  and  knowledge.  Dickens  has  a  story  of  an 
old  woman,  withered  and  infirm,  sitting  by  the 


174  THOSE  GONE  BEFOEE 

grave  of  her  lover,  talking  with  a  child  vi^ho  finds 
her  there.  The  child  eyes  her  curiously  as  she  tells 
her  tale  of  love,  and  asks,  timidly,  if  her  lover  was 
an  old  man.  The  woman  draws  from  her  bosom 
a  worn  locket  and  turns  to  the  child  the  picture  of 
the  young  man,  radiant  in  all  the  first  glow  of 
youth,  and  facing  him  a  maiden  of  eighteen,  fair 
as  a  summer  day.  "  There  we  are,  dear,"  she  said 
softly;  "would  you  take  that  smiling  girl  for  the 
old  woman  at  your  side  ?  "  When  the  tell-tale 
eyes  of  the  child  answer,  she  murmurs,  bitterly, 
"  No,  no ;  there  is  no  trace  of  the  girl  he  loved  left 
in  me.  If  he  saw  me  at  the  grave  he  would  never 
know  me.  And  he  is  young  as  ever."  Yet  her 
love  was  still  young,  and  if  she  had  thought  of  it 
more  deeply  perhaps  she  would  have  learned  a 
deeper  truth.  For  we  are  spirits  now  as  much  as 
we  shall  ever  be,  spirits  clad  in  veils ;  and  it  is  the 
spirit  of  our  friend  that  we  love.  Often  we  do  not 
really  know  a  friend  until  we  see  him  in  the  apoca- 
lypse of  death,  as  Tennyson  saw  Hallam  as  one 
transfigured  and  exalted.  It  is  permitted  us  to 
take  this  familiar  fact  as  a  parable,  if  not  as  a 
prophecy,  of  what  will  be  true  when  death  has  re- 
moved the  masks  which  hide  us  one  from  another. 
The  testimony  of  the  Bible  in  regard  to  the  hope 
of  recognition  in  the  life  beyond  is  most  impress- 
ive, and  a  little  puzzling  at  first.     It  is  confident. 


THOSE  GONE  BEFOEE  175 

but  not  curious,  and  its  reticence  is  very  eloquent. 
If  we  except  a  few  intimations,  such  as  the  Trans- 
figuration scene  and  the  words  of  the  Master  to  the 
man  who  died  with  Him,  "  This  day  shalt  thou  be 
with  me  in  Paradise,"  the  writers  of  the  Bible  have 
hardly  a  word,  hardly  a  thought,  to  bestow  upon 
the  subject.  It  is  almost  the  same  in  Christian  lit- 
erature, in  which  the  direct  references  to  this 
haunting  hope  are  surprisingly  meagre.'  Why 
should  it  be  so?  Is  it  because  the  writers  of  the 
Bible  did  not  believe  that  we  shall  meet  and  know 
our  friends  again  ?  No,  no ;  apparently  it  is  rather 
because  it  never  occurred  to  them  that  any  one 
would  doubt  it.  In  the  New  Testament  at  least  it 
is  everywhere  taken  for  granted,  as  in  the  parable 
of  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus,  where  it  is  assumed 
as  an  obvious  fact.  The  whole  tendency  of  its 
teaching  so  clearly  implies  that  we  shall  know  and 
be  known  that  there  is  no  need  to  affirm  it. 

^"Reunion  in  Eternity,"  by  Sir  Robertson  Nicoll.  Here 
is  a  golden  book,  and  it  was  sorely  needed.  It  begins  with 
a  series  of  essays  on  reunion,  tender,  wise,  exquisitely 
restrained,  yet  serenely  confident,  tracing  the  great  hope 
in  the  poetry  of  Tennyson  and  Dante,  and  in  the  teaching 
of  Luther  and  Melanchthon.  Then  follows  an  anthology 
of  reunion,  as  between  parents  and  children,  brothers  and 
sisters,  lovers,  husband  and  wife,  and  friends,  to  which  is 
added  a  far-ranging  testimony  from  history  and  literature. 
It  is  a  book  for  the  bereaved,  bringing  to  the  solace  of 
wounded  hearts  the  music  of  many  voices,  wooing  us 
from  the  bitterness  of  grief  to  the  peace  of  believing,  the 
waiting  in  hope.  It  will  be  a  ministry  of  grace  to  hearts 
deeply  hurt  by  the  horror  of  war. 


176  THOSE  GONE  BEFOEE 

Jesus  taught  the  continuity  of  life  here  and  here- 
after, and  that  we  begin  there  where  we  leave  off 
here.  Death,  in  His  thought,  is  no  such  "[r-^ak  as 
it  seems  to  be.  It  does  not  destroy  the  "til,  nor 
does  it  denude  it,  making  the  after-life^^a  pale 
shadow  of  our  life  here,  as  the  old  Greeks  feared. 
The  change  which  takes  place  in  death  is  only  in 
the  scene  of  life  and  in  its  conditions,  not  in  its 
reaHty  and  unity.  Indeed,  the  eternal  life  may  be 
entered  into  now,  death  being  only  a  sleep  from 
which  we  awake  to  a  fuller  life,  free  of  the  fatigues 
of  earth.  As  St.  Paul  puts  it,  death  is  abolished. 
If  we  are  nowhere  told  that  families  will  be 
grouped  there  as  they  are  here,  we  are  told  that 
God  is  our  Father  and  we  are  His  family.  Always 
it  is  to  a  richer,  more  abundant  life  that  we  go, 
where  truth  will  be  more  vivid  and  love  more  real. 
Now  we  see  through  a  glass  darkly;  then  face  to 
face.  Life  is  to  be  better  further  on,  fuller  in  its 
fellowships,  happier  in  its  realizations,  more  home- 
like even  than  it  is  now.  It  will  surprise  us,  ful- 
filling our  most  daring  hopes  and  our  holiest 
dreams — such  is  the  witness  of  the  Bible. 

Let  us  go  further,  and  ask  as  to  the  basis  of  this 
hope  that  opens  so  fair  a  vista.  In  respect  to  the 
after-life,  as  of  the  life  that  now  is,  faith  is  the 
first  necessity  and  the  last.  There  is,  strictly 
speaking,  no  such  thing  as  demonstration  in  this 


THOSE  GONE  BEFOEE  177 

dim  world.  We  do  not  live  by  knowledge,  but  by 
faith,  and  faith,  as  George  MacDonald  tells  us,  is 
not  yh.  ling;  it  is  a  force.  Huxley  dared  to  trust 
his  mc  "  instincts  as  over  against  a  natural  order 
which  .:e  held  to  be  non-moral;  that  was  faith. 
The  highest  faiths  and  hopes  of  humanity  are  not 
only  more  revealing,  but  they  are  more  trustworthy 
than  our  knowledge.  Whether  there  be  knowl- 
edge, it  shall  vanish  away,  but  now  abideth  the  an- 
cient, high,  heroic  faith  of  man.  It  is  no  other 
than  the  voice  of  the  universe  speaking  in  him,  tell- 
ing him  what  the  world  is  and  what  he  is.  Once 
we  grasp  this  fact,  the  truths  of  life  and  faith  take 
on  a  new  aspect  of  validity.  The  universe  which 
bred  these  hopes  in  us  and  causes  them  to  persist, 
does  not  create  desires  to  which  there  is  no  answer. 
Born  out  of  the  heart  of  nature,  our  faiths  and 
dreams  are  a  part  of  the  account  and  prophecy 
which  the  universe  gives  of  itself;  a  response  to 
something  real  which  evokes  and  sustains  them. 
How  vividly  Ian  MacLaren  stated  this  in  one  of 
his  Drumtochty  stories.  Margaret  Howe,  who 
was  "  nearer  to  the  heart  of  things  than  any  one 
in  the  glen,"  said  to  gentle  Lily  Grant,  "  Dinna  be 
ashamed  of  yir  dreams,  Lily;  they'll  come  true 
some  day,  for  ye  canna  think  better  than  God  will 
dae." 
The  most  wonderful  thing  on  this  earth  is  per- 


178  THOSE  GONE  BEFOEE 

sonal  love.  However  it  may  be  analyzed,  it  is  a 
fundamental  reality,  and  its  prophecy  has  a  right 
to  be  heard.  Never  is  it  more  glorious  than  when 
it  confronts  its  old  enemy  death.  There  is  a  scene 
in  the  Zangwill  drama,  "  The  Next  Religion,'* 
which  may  help  us  to  see  the  wonder  and  prophecy 
of  a  love  that  is  stronger  than  death.  Stephen 
Trame  is  a  teacher  of  the  religion  of  law,  a  gospel 
of  science  whose  glacial  truths,  he  holds,  will  breed 
a  sturdier  faith  than  the  old  tropical  theology.  His 
wife  does  not  share  his  arctic  religion,  with  its  far- 
off  frozen  God,  which  brushes  the  hope  of  personal 
immortality  aside  as  a  mere  sentiment.  Through 
the  generosity  of  a  disciple,  a  temple  is  built  with 
coloured  windows,  in  which  Mazzini,  Emerson,  and 
Swinburne  appear  like  saints.  The  son,  Wilfred, 
has  written  the  music  for  the  dedication,  seeking  to 
capture  the  melody  of  the  old  faith  and  set  it  to 
alien  words.  Just  before  the  service  of  dedication 
begins,  the  son  is  brutally  killed  by  a  fanatic  in  the 
vestibule,  and  his  body  lies  on  the  floor  covered 
with  flowers  from  the  altar.  On  one  side  stands 
his  father  with  his  cold  religion  of  law;  on  the 
other  his  mother,  white  and  magnificent  in  her 
faith  in  the  religion  of  love.  Stephen,  seeking  to 
console  her,  says,  "  But  he  is  not  dead,  Mary ;  he 

will  live  in  his  music  and  his " 

"  Stop  your  words,"  cries  the  mother.     "  Can  I 


THOSE  GONE  BEFOEE  179 

embrace  his  music  and  feel  its  heart  beating  against 
mine  ?  Will  it  give  me  kiss  for  kiss  ?  There  must 
be  people  of  all  ages  in  heaven.  Yes,  that  is  why 
children  die — that  heaven  may  not  lack  little  ones 
and  so  be  less  heaven.  Is  there  not  time  enough 
and  space  enough  and  power  enough  to  set  all  these 
blunders  straight?  Are  there  not  stars  enough, 
universes  enough  ?  Or  do  you  think  I  cannot  wait 
a  million  years  and  journey  a  million  miles  if  only 
to  hear  Wilfred  once  more  say,  '  Mother  *  ?  I  tell 
you  that  the  great  live  world  will  never  take  your 
religion,  and  that  even  if  you  delude  all  male  hu- 
manity the  mothers  would  rise  up  and  tear  it  to 
pieces." 

There  speaks  a  voice  from  the  heart  of  life  itself, 
the  mother  voice  of  the  world,  more  eloquent  and 
more  authentic  than  any  logic.  It  comes  from  the 
depths,  fathomless  by  reason,  and  it  rises  to  the 
heights.  It  proclaims  the  enduring  reality  of  love 
between  mother  and  son  to  the  end  of  things. 
When  love  and  death  face  each  other  we  are  among 
the  elemental  realities  of  life  where  religion  has  its 
roots,  and  philosophy  its  foundations.  Fidelity 
here  is  sanity.  Our  human  world,  with  its  light 
and  colour,  its  warmth  of  love,  its  sanctity  of 
friendship,  its  fondness  of  comradeship,  is  the  fair- 
est flower  of  the  universe  in  time,  and  it  has  endur- 
ing y.^lue.     It  is  the  nursery  of  love,  beauty,  char- 


180  THOSE  GONE  BEFOEE 

acter,  and  hope.  At  bottom  it  is  a  question  of 
values,  and  human  life  has  value  for  God.  He 
made  it.  He  loves  it.  He  conserves  it.  Man  is 
at  his  highest  in  fellov^ship,  and  the  loves  of  life, 
which  make  him  most  like  God,  are  prophetic  be- 
yond words.  Brief  at  its  longest,  broken  at  its 
best,  in  jeopardy  every  hour  amid  the  perils  of 
earthly  life,  love  affirms  and  claims  its  own  prom- 
ise. Every  argument  for  a  life  beyond  is  also  an 
argument  for  the  reunion  of  those  who  walked  to- 
gether here  and  in  the  light  of  love  learned  a  faith 
which  defies  death. 

Our  real  difficulty  lies,  perhaps,  in  the  fact  that 
we  are  unable  to  imagine  the  conditions  of  the  life 
beyond,  the  less  so  in  these  days  when  so  much  of 
the  old  scenery  of  faith  has  faded.  Try  as  we 
may,  we  cannot  picture  another  world  as  it  is,  save 
as  a  glorified  vision  of  the  world  that  now  is — life 
without  weariness,  love  without  sorrow,  amid  the 
living  green  of  rustling  woods  and  the  glint  of 
happy  waters.  But  that  need  be  no  difficulty  at  all. 
If  we  had  no  experience  of  a  world  like  this  we 
should  probably  regard  the  very  idea  of  such  a 
world  as  contradictory,  if  not  inconceivable.  Nor 
must  we  make  our  imagination  the  measure  of  the 
love  and  power  of  God.  For  my  part,  the  vision 
of  God  in  Christ  is  enough,  and  the  assurance 
grows  that  the  reality  it  has  in  its  keeping  will  sur- 


THOSE  GONE  BEFORE  181 

pass  the  dreams  we  all  have  dreamed,  when  we 
awake  from  the  dream  of  life.  Hitherto  a  fine  in- 
stinct has  kept  Christian  thinkers  from  being  too 
intrusive  about  the  life  beyond  the  veil,  willing  to 
walk  by  faith  and  not  by  sight,  knowing  that  eye 
has  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  neither  has  it  entered 
into  the  heart  of  man  to  conceive  the  things  that 
God  has  in  store  for  those  who  seek  His  will  to 
do  it. 

St.  Bernard,  in  his  lament  over  his  brother,  re- 
fused to  think  that  the  dead  simply  remember  the 
past  and  know  not  the  present  in  which  we  strug- 
gle. He  held,  as  Tennyson  held — what  every  sor- 
rowing heart  may  learn  if  it  is  patient  and  true — 
that  those  who  leave  us  do  return  in  a  new  intimacy 
that  is  both  inward  and  healing — nearer,  it  may  be, 
than  when  they  walked  by  our  side — influencing  us 
in  ways  beyond  words ;  and  that  our  sense  of  fel- 
lowship with  them  often  rises,  in  moods  dross- 
drained  and  holy,  beyond  anything  that  life  can 
supply.  But  for  many  in  our  day  this  communion 
of  memory,  of  ideal,  of  aspiration,  is  not  enough: 
it  is  too  vague,  too  impersonal.  Never  has  there 
been  a  deeper  yearning  in  human  hearts  than  to- 
day for  the  touch  of  vanished  hands  and  the  sound 
of  voices  that  are  hushed.  Millions  of  young  men 
have  fallen  in  the  war — the  gay,  the  gallant,  the 
true-hearted,  the  echo  of  whose  laughter  is  still  in 


182  THOSE  GONE  BEFOEE 

our  ears — doubly  dead  because  they  died  so  young, 
and  a  great  heartache  follows  the  evening  sun 
around  the  world.  It  is  profound.  It  is  pathetic. 
There  are  hours,  there  are  days,  when  it  is  poignant 
almost  beyond  human  endurance. 

What  wonder,  then,  that  many  seek  not  only 
communion,  but  communication,  with  the  dead. 
There  are  those  who  tell  us  that  they  have  been 
granted  disclosures  of  a  kind  that  seem  to  be  au- 
thentic, and  as  to  that  I  make  no  question — only, 
the  majority  have  not  been  so  blessed.  Should 
God  grant  me  such  an  unveiling,  I  would  thank 
Him  with  that  dumb  joy  for  which  words  were 
never  made ;  but  He  has  not  done  so.  Nor  can  I 
bring  myself  to  seek  it  through  others,  much  less 
by  the  methods  employed  which  are  so  open  to 
doubt  and  which  make  a  man  discredit  his  own 
senses.  No,  no.  Spiritualism  is  not  spirituality, 
and  it  is  in  the  fellowship  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ, 
in  whom  there  is  no  darkness,  no  distance,  no 
death,  that  I  find  consolation  and  consecration. 
What  we  want  is  not  simply  the  bare  fact  of  sur- 
vival, but  something  that  reveals  itself  in  a  finer 
grace  of  character  and  shows  itself  to  be  true  in 
the  exaltation  and  amelioration  of  life.  Winifred 
Letts  has  set  the  key  by  which  we  may  be  as  heroic 
in  our  loneliness  as  our  heroes  were  in  their  sac- 
rifice: 


THOSE  GONE  BEFOEE  183 

Because  you  live,  though  out  of  sight  and  reach, 
I  will,  so  help  me  God,  live  bravely  too, 

Taking  the  road  with  laughter  and  gay  speech, 
Alert,  intent  to  give  life  all  its  due. 

One  word  more.  If  we  keep  alive  through  long 
years  of  separation  our  love  of  those  gone  before, 
as  every  true  heart  does,  then,  on  our  side  at  least, 
reunion  is  prepared  for.  And  we  may  be  sure  that 
they  will  answer  our  longing,  for  love  is  the  sover- 
eign reality,  the  same  here,  hereafter,  and  forever 
— a  mighty  power  overleaping  time  and  change  and 
distance.  Like  the  disciples  of  Jesus  on  the  lake 
at  dawn,  we  may  not  know  them  at  first  when  we 
meet  again,  but  there  will  be  tokens — dear,  delight- 
ful, well-remembered  things,  all  the  more  vivid  in 
that  clearer  light — to  tell  us  that  "  life  is  ever  lord 
of  death,  and  love  can  never  lose  its  own."  So  let 
us  believe ;  so  let  us  live  out  our  little  day 

Till  the  night  is  gone, 
And  with  the  morn  those  angel  faces  smile 
Which  I  have  loved  long  since,  and  lost  a  while. 


BIBLE  STUDY 


P.   fFHITlVELL    WILSON            Author  of  "  The  CknU 
WtFcrser  ^ 

The  Church  We  Forget 

A  Study  of  the  Life  and  Words  of  the  Early 
Christians.    8vo,  cloth,  net 

The  author  of  "The  Christ  We  Forget"  here  furnishes 
a  companion-picture  of  the  earliest  Christian  Church — of 
the  men  and  women,  of  like  feelings  with  ourselves,  who 
followed  Christ  and  fought  His  battles  in  the  Roman 
world  of  their  day.  "Here  again,"  says  Mr.  Wilson,  "ray- 
paint-box  is  the  Bible,  and  nothing  else — and  my  canvas 
IS  a  page  which  he  who  runs  may  read." 

C.  ALPHONSO  SMITH,  Ph.D.,  LLP. 

Head  of  the  Department  of  English  in  ihs  U.  S.  Naval 
Academy,  Annapoks,  Aid. 

Key-note  Studies  in  Key-note  Books 

of  the  Bible  i2mo,  cloth,  net 

The  sacred  books  dealt  with  are  Genesis,  Esther,  Job, 
Rosea,  John's  Gospel,  Romans,  Philippians,  Revelation. 
"_No  series  of  lectures  yet  given  on  this  famous  founda- 
tion have  been  more  interesting  and  stimulating  than  these 
illuminating  studies  of  scriptural  books  by  a  layman  and 
library   expert." — Christian   Observer. 

GEORGE  D.  IVATSON,  P.P. 

God's  Fir^  Words 

Studies  in  Genesis,  Historic,  Prophetic  and  Ex- 
perimental.    i2mo,  cloth,  net 

Dr.  Watson  shows  how  God's  purposes  and  infinite 
wisdom,  His  plan  and  purpose  for  the  race,  His  unfailing 
love  and  faithfulness  are  first  unfolded  in  the  Book  of 
Genesis,  to  remain  unchanged  through  the  whole  canon  of 
Scripture.  Dr.  Watson's  new  work  will  furnish  unusu«I 
enlightment  to  every  gleaner  in  religious  fields,  who  •will 
find  "God's  First  Words"  to  possess  great  value  and  profit. 

EVERETT  PEPPERRELL  WHEELER,  A.  M. 

Author  of  "Sixty  Years  of  American  Life,"  etc. 

A  Lawyer's  Study  of  the  Bible 

Its  Answer  to  the  Questions  of  To-day.  i2mo, 
cloth,  net 

Mr.  Wheeler's  main  proposition  is  that  the  Bible,  when 
wisely  studied,  rightly  understood  and  its  counsel  closely 
followed,  is  found  to  be  of  inestimable  value  as  a  guide  to 
daily  life  and  conduct.  To  this  end  Mr.  Wheeler  ex- 
amines its  teachings  as  they  relate  to  sociology,  labor  and 
capital,  socialism,  war,  fatalism,  prayer,  immortality.  A 
lucid,  helpful  book. 


LECTURSS  AND  STUDIES 

EDfVIN  LINCOLN  HOUSE,   P.P. 

The  Drama  of  the  Face 

Studies  in  Applied  Psychology.  i2mo,  cloth, 
net 

A  practical  Christian  indication  of  the  principles  of 
modern  psychology.  Throughout  the  whole  discussion  Dr. 
House  keeps  in  view  the  fact  that  man  is  a  spirit — ihat 
the  laws  as  well  as  the  possibilities  of  the  spiritual  world 
are  real.  A  defence  of  _  the  position  that  to  live  richly 
and  strongly,  one  must  live  in  conformation  to  these  in- 
evitable, unalterable  laws. 

CHARLES  JVOOP,  P.  P.        Pastor  of  the  Church  of  tk» 

•~ Covenant,  Washington,  D.C. 

The  Living  Christ  and  Some  Prob- 
lems of  To-day 

William  Belden  Noble  Lectures  at  Harvard 
University  1918.     i2mo,  cloth,  net 

"Of  a  timely  appearance.  It  is  admirably  calculated  to 
recall  men  out  of  the  pressure  of  material  urgencies,  out 
of  the  stresses  of  a  monstrous  devastation  to  a  simple 
fundamental  assurance  that,  despite  all,  God  is  still  in 
the  world." — Washington  Star. 

HIRAM  VANKIRK      Rector  of  St.  Luke's.  Noroion,  Conn. 

The  Source-Book  for  the  Life  of 

Christ     A  New  Harmony  of  the  Gospels. 
8vo,  cloth,  net 

A  volume  presenting  the  chief  sources  for  a  study  pf 
the  Life  of  Christ.  It  is  at  once  an  analysis,  a  synopsis, 
a  conspectus  of  sources,  a  harmony,  a  collation  of  refer- 
ences of  the  Four  Gospels.  It  contains  also  the  refer- 
ences made  by  St.  Paul,  Josephus  and  other  writers  to 
Gospel  events  which  are  of  historical  value.  The  text  em- 
ployed, throughout,  is  the  American  Standard. 

FERPINANP  S.  SCHENCK,  P.P.,  LL.P. 

Professor  of  Preaching-  and  Sociology  in  the  Theological 
Saninary,  New  Brunsiuick,  N.  J. 

The  Apostles'  Creed  in  the  Twen- 
tieth Century 

i2mo,  cloth,  net 

"Dr.  Schenck  finds  in  the  Apostles'  Creed  the  basal 
truths  taught  by  the  apostles  and  their  successors  as  de- 
veloped in  their  writings.  Clause  by  clause  he  discussed 
them  with  clear  insight  and  balanced  comprehension,  loyal 
always  to  the  inspired  v/ord.  It  is  a  good  book  for  these 
times  of  loose  thinking  and  departure  from  the  trutk  aa 
it  is  in  Christ  Jesus." — The  Bvangelical. 


FAITH  AND  IMMORTALITY 


HENRY  VAN  DYKE 

What  Peace  IVfeans 

l2mo,  boards,  net 

Dr.  van  Dyke's  striking  booklet  might  have  been  fitly 
called  "Peace  and  Imnaortality,"  for  it  shows  us  a  dis- 
tinct connection  existing  between  the  peace  that  comes  as 
the  fruit  of  individual  sacrifice  and  the  peace  that  is  the 
promised  heritage  of  "the  faithful."  Another  of  those  un. 
mistakable  brochure-gems,  familiarly  known  as  a  van  Dyke 
gift-book. 

MALCOLM  J.  MacLEOD,  P.P. 

Songs  in  the  Night 

i2mo,  cloth,  net 

"Satisfying,  cheering,  written  for  those  -who  have  been 
forced  to  drink  of  the  bitter  waters  of  Marah;  for  those 
beset  with  doubt;  for  those  who  despair.  Studded  with 
choicely-chosen  illustration,  and  fitting  literary  allusion, 
each  chapter  has  a  message." — Christian  Work, 

E.  M.  MILLIGAN,  P.P, 

Where  Are  the  Dead? 

l2mo,  cloth,  net 

A  faithful  guide  to  the  correct  understanding  of  Scrip- 
tural truth  as  taught  everywhere  in  the  Bible.  It  is  a 
careful  study  witn  copious  references,  affording  true 
spiritual  consolation  to  those  who  place  their  faith  in  di- 
vine revelation. 

BISHOP  EDWIN  P.  MOUZON 

Does  God  Care? 

An  answer  to  Certain  Questions  Touching 
Providence  and  Prayer.    i6mo,  cloth,  net 

In  a  concise  and  closely-reasoned  way,  Bishop  Mouzon 
meets  the  question  with  an  unflinching  affirmative,  pre- 
senting a  strong,  forceful  argument  for  the  benignity  of 
Divine  Providence  and  the  prevailing  power  of  prayer. 

/.  PATERSON-SMYTH  Tenth  Edition 

The  Gospel  of  the  Hereafter 

Revised  and  Re-edited,  cloth,  net 

"A  dispassionate  study  of  immortality.  It  is  a  bold, 
honest,  heroic  book.  He  believes  and  can  reason  in  faith 
and  hope.  The  boo':  is  preeminently  worth  while.  It  is 
adapted  to  make  one  think,  feel  and  act." — Watchman- 
Examiner, 


THE  PULPIT  AND  PEW 


G.  CAMPBELL  MORGAN,  P.P. 

The  Ministry  of  the  Word 

James  Sprunt  Lectures.  i2mo,  net 
The  great  English  teacher  and  preacher  first  deals  with 
the  fundamental  conception  held  eonoerning  the  two  great 
factors  in  his  title,  and  then  proceeds  to  examine  the 
Word  and  the  especial  expression  given  it  in  the  respective 
ministries  of  the  Prophet,  Apostle,  Evangelist,  Preacher 
and  Teecher.  He  then  reviews  the  changed  world  condi- 
tions, the  unchanged  obligations  of  the  messenger  of  God, 
the  preparation  for  the  ministry,  and  what  constitutes  the 
proper  exercise  of  the,  vocation. 

A.  F.  McGARRAH  Author  of  "Modem  Church 

'  *"""""■  Manazemeni,^^  etc. 

Practical  Int^-Church  Methods 

I2mo,  cloth,  net 

Interchurch  action  in  matters  relating  to  Evangelism, 
Missionary  Enterprise  and  Suppert,  Finance,  Advertising, 
Education,  Women's  Organisiations,  are  dealt  with  by  a 
writer  who,  has  furnished  abundant  evidence  of  his  abil- 
ity to  deal  with  affairs  ef  this  sert  with  a  note-worthy 
pertinency   that  is  based   on   sound,  first-hand   knowledge. 

ALFREP  WILLIAMS  ANTHONY,  P.P. 

Executive  Secretary  Home  Missions  Cfuneil 

Conscience  and  Concessions 

How  May  the  Individual  Become  Related  to 
the  Ma^ay.    i2mo,  cloth,  net 

_  A  diftcHssIon  of  the  principles  of  federation  and  coopera- 
tion in  their  social,  religiou  and  political  aspects.  Dr. 
Anthony  also  reviews  the  plsce  and  province  of  conscience, 
and  the  guiding  principles  of  legitimate  compromise. 

/    A.  AGAR,  P.P. 

The  Stewardship  of  Life 

A  Study  of  Responsibility.  i6mo,  cloth,  net 
"F.  A.  Agar  is  bright  as  a  dollar,  absolutely  fearless, 
and  hits  hard,  manly  blows.  At  the  same  time  the  native, 
good-humored,  Irish  wit  that  goes  along  with  the  'tlirash- 
ing'  makes  the  'medicine'  good.  Perhaps  the  best  part  of 
Agar's  work  is  the  constructive  program  presented." — Ex- 
positor. 

Democracy  and  the  Church 

i6mo,  cloth,  net 

Dr.  Agar  addresses  himself  to  the  task  of  showing  that 
if  democracy  is  to  fill  the  world  with  justice,  peace  and 
progress,  the  Church  of  Christ  must  lead  the  way.  True 
Christianity  is,  and  since  its  inception  always  has  been, 
the  exponent  of  the  principles  of  real  democracy,  and  the 
only  hope  for  humanity's  problems  is  their  solution  by 
and  through  the  influence  and  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ. 


ABOUT  OTHER  LANDS 


HENRY   CHUNG 

The  Oriental  Policy  of  the  United  States 

With  maps,  i2mo,  cloth,  net 

A  plea  for  the  policy  of  the  Open  Door  in  China,  pre- 
sented by  an  oriental  scholar  of  broad  training  and  deep 
sympathies.  The  history  of  American  diplomatic  relation- 
ships with  the  Orient,  the  development  of  the  various 
policies  and  influences  of  the  western  powers  in  China, 
ind  the  iniperilistic  aspirations  of  Japan  are  set  forth  ad- 
jiirably. 

CHARLES  KENDALL  HARRINGTON 

Missionary  Amer.  Baptist  Ftreign  Miss.  Society  to  Japan 

Captain  Bickel  of  the  Inland  Sea 

Ilkistrated,  8vo.,  cloth,  net 

"^specially  valuable  at  this  hour,  because  it  throws  a 
flood  of  light  on  many  conditions  in  the  Orient  in  which 
all  students  of  religious  and  social  questions  are  espe- 
cially interested.  We  would  suggest  that  pastors  generally 
retell  the  story  at  some  Sunday  evening  service,  for  here 
is  a  story  sensational,  thrilling,  informing  and  at  the  same 
time  a  story  of  great  spiritual  urgency  and  power." — 
W  atchman-Examiner. 

HARRIET  NEWELL  NOTES        Canton,  China 

A  Light  in  the  Land  of  Sinim 

Forty-five  Years  in  the  True  Light  Seminary, 
1872-1917.    Fully  Illustrated,  8vo.,  net 

"An  authoritative  account  of  the  work  undertaken  and 
achieved  by  the  True  Light  Seminary,  Canton,  China. 
Mrs.  Noyes  has  devoted  practically  her  -whole  life  to  this 
sphere  of  Christian  service,  and  the  record  here  preseated 
is  that  of  her  own  labors  and  those  associated  with  her  in 
missionary  activity  in  China,  covering  a  period  of  mora 
than  forty-five  years." — Christian  Work. 

MRS.  H.  G.   UNDERWOOD 

Underwood  of  Korea 

A  Record  of  the  Life  and  Work  of  Horace  G. 
Underwood,  D.D.    Illustrated,  cloth,  net 

"An  intimate  and  captivating  story  of  one  who  laborc'l 
nobljr  and  faithfully  in  Korea  for  thirty-one  years,  pr& 
senting  his  character,  consecration,  faith,  and  indomitabI| 

courage." — Missions. 


BIOGRAPHY  AND  REMINI?^CENCES 


JAMES  M.  LUDLOW,  P.P.,  Litt.D. 
Author  of '  The  Captain  of  i  he  Janizaries  "  '*  Deborah,''*  etc. 

Along  the  Friendly  Way 

Reminiscences  and  Impressions.  Frontispiece, 
l2mo,  cloth,  net 

Dr.  Ludlow  has  observed  keenly,  and  thought  wisely 
and  deeply;  he  has  read  extensively,  traveled  widely,  and 
rubbed  elbows  and  wits  with  men  great  and  little  of  many 
nations  and  under  varying  conditions.  He  is  the  "full 
man"  of  which  the  philosopher  speaks.  And  all  these 
intellectual  and  spiritual  riches  garnered  from  many  har- 
vests he  spreads  before  the  reader  in  a  style  that  is  re- 
markable for  its  felicity  of  phrasing,  the  color  of  its  varied 
imagery,  and  its  humor,  warmth,  and  human  sympathy. 

HERBERT  H.  GOfTSN,  F.  R.  G.  S. 

The  Napoleon  of  the  Pacific: 
Kamehameha  the  Great 

Illustrated,  i2mo,  cloth,  net 

The  history  of  the  great  chieftian  who,  in  the  closing 
years  of  the  eighteenth  century,  effected  the  union  of  the 
eight;  islands  of  the  Hawaiian  Archipelago  and  welded 
them  into  a  kingdom.  Both  student  and  general  reader 
will  find  THE  NAPOLEON  OF  THE  PACIFIC  a  richly- 
stored  mine  of  deeply  interesting  information,  extremely 
difficult  to  come  at  in  any  other  form. 

CLARA  E.    LAUGHLIN 

Foch  the  Man 

New  Revised  and  Enlarged  Edition  with  Ad- 
ditional Illustrations.    Net 

W.  B.  McCormick  in  the  N.  Y.  Sun  says:  "Miss  Laugh- 
lin  has  let  nothing  escape  her  that  will  throw  light  on  the 
development  of  his  character.  A  revelation  of  the  man 
who  at  sixty-seven  put  the  crowning  touch  to  the  com- 
plete defeat  of  Germany's  military  pretensions." 

FREPERICK  LYNCH,  P.P. 

The  One  Great  Society 

A  Book  of  Recollections.    i2mo,  cloth,  net 

Records  ol  some  personal  reminiscences  and  recollec 
tions  of  the  author,  who,  as  preacher,  editor  and  promi- 
nent member  of  one  or  two  international  organizations. 
has  met  many  of  the  world's  prominent  men  in  the  (ieias 
gl  divinity,  philanthropy,  literature  and  reform. 


r-v;-'^- 

1 

DATE  DUE 

J. ..— _ ^ 

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1 

GAYLORD 

PRINTED  IN  US    A. 

